The Adventures of Peaches and Mandy

by marmalado

S1E32: Mother's Little Hybrid

The breeze flowed through Olive as smoothly as butter, taking her corkscrew-shaped ponytail with it. She reclined against a sizable hill, watching as Haruko gazed at the sky.

"What are you looking at?"

"I am just thinking."

A pause. Olive picked up a blade of grass and mindlessly examined it.

"Olive." Haruko lowered her head and turned it around to stare at the Director. "What do you remember about rescuing and raising Mandy?"

Olive's expression turned into confusion, as though wondering what kind of question Haruko was asking -- surely it was purely rhetorical, as she knew about how Mandy was raised. But the girl supposed it wouldn't hurt to give a little refresher, and so she set the blade of grass down to make eye contact.

"Everything. I was there for the first time she ever walked, the first time she said a word, the first time she was able to feed herself...and I did it all with only barebones knowledge of how to raise a child." A sad smile danced on her lips. "At first I didn't think I was going to be able to do it. But I couldn't, I wouldn't, just give up Mandy for adoption. There was something about her..."

Haruko raised an eyebrow during the pause Olive brought to the table.

"...something about her that warmed my heart. I was always known as a nobody, just a shy agent-in-training who was as run-of-the-mill as anyone else. When I helped to stop the pienado, I became tougher, stronger, more hard-hearted. Mandy helped me bring out my compassionate side. My, uh...maternal instincts, if you will." Olive stretched out her legs. "Even though I'm..."

Another pause. Haruko remained silent and watched as Olive rolled her eyes around in thought.

"I...think I'm an only child. Or maybe I'm not. I'm not sure." Olive shook her head. "B-but I digress. We're not here to talk about my past."

As much as Haruko wanted to divert the current subject to that exact topic of discussion, she refrained. "I see." She turned the rest of her body around to face Olive. "It is just as I had thought. You are a very kind person, one who would love Mandy until the very end of your life." Her eyes grew steely. "However, your intentions as of now are rather misplaced."

"Huh?"

"Recently I have watched as you dote on Mandy to the measure of overprotectiveness." Haruko said. "All under the pretense of..."

There was a lengthy pause, one that the kitsune put in place in order to allow enough room for Olive to answer. But the girl wasn't exactly getting the drift.

"I...um...w-well..." Olive blinked. "I-it's to prove to her that I'm the right person to raise her. And not the adults that have forgotten about her." A scoff, as the words began pouring from her brain to straight clear out of her mouth. "I've cared for Mandy for eleven years. When she went missing, I worried for her safety around the clock. I tried to find her through any and all means possible. I can't..." She grit her teeth. "I can't say the same for her real parents."

"Olive, please, heed my words." Haruko placed a paw on Olive's knee. "I have been listening to the feelings of Mandy's real parents for a long time now. They may not show it on the outside, but they cry every day, waiting for their beloved daughter to return to them. They want to find her."

"Then why not look for her?!"

"Some cannot simply drop every aspect of their lives to look for their loved ones. It is not how things are done." Haruko shook her head. "Mandy's real parents likely have other commitments, other things in their lives that take up their precious time. Precious time that, if freed, would most certainly be used to find their daughter."

"So are you saying you've never even met them?" Olive asked. "You're basing this off of some hunch?"

"No. I have the power to sense the true feelings of humans. That is how I know."

Olive opened her mouth to fire off a witty retort, then quickly closed it as she realized that she really wouldn't put it past a creature who was odd -- even in the most ostensible sense -- to possess such a power. "So I was wrong, then. They've really been searching for her? All this time?"

"To the best of their abilities."

All Olive could do, after staring at Haruko for a full minute, was bury her face in both of her hands as she began to regret everything she had said just minutes before.

"As it stands, I am the only one, aside from Mandy's real parents, to know of her origins, a life far before Odd Squad." Haruko settled into a lying-down position. "If you would permit me to do so, I would like to tell you the story in its entirety. Perhaps then, you will develop a new perspective on this situation."

Olive looked up. Shook her head. Gave a meek nod. Parted her jaws to murmur three little words that would change her life as she knew it.

"Tell me everything."

---

Annabelle and Kieran.

They were a young couple in their twenties, living happily in Toronto and just trying to make honest livings.

Annabelle was someone who preferred to live among the elites of society, and certainly acted like it, even if her dreams were rather far-fetched. She was a very kind person, always willing to help others in need and promising to become one of the members of the "nice rich" group of people that seemed to be lacking in the world.

Kieran, on the other hand, was far more laid-back, preferring to take things easy. He was a businessman in sales through and through -- a temporary job until he could find something better -- but on his off time he embraced laziness as though he were an expert in it.

As they say, opposites attract, and they were no exception.

Until one day, when Annabelle decided to buy a pregnancy test on her way home from work as the manager of a health and beauty shop. It was purely in secret, as she had suspicions but didn't want to alarm Kieran. What was also a secret was that she had always wanted a child, the small sphere of snow that would snowball into what she hoped was a growing family that would thrive for years to come. She had dropped hints of it to Kieran here and there, but he never picked them up.

The results shocked her, the night she took the test.

"Um...Kieran, sweetie?"

"Yeah?"

"I...have something to tell you."

"Honey, what's wrong?"

"I...I think I might be..."

A pause. The test clattered to the floor.

Kieran looked at the test, then at Annabelle. "D-did you...what..."

"I did. I...we're...Kieran, we're going to have a baby!"

To her relief, Kieran gave a hearty laugh. "That's amazing, Anna! Do you know how long I've wanted a child?"

"I thought...I thought you would be angry..."

"Angry?" Kieran rose from his spot on the couch and hugged his wife. "No, no, of course not. Having a child, it would be a dream come true for me. A chance to grow our little family, to bring new life into the world..."

Annabelle giggled. "Then I'm happy you're happy, Kieran."

Nine months went by as Annabelle and Kieran did everything they could to prepare for their new baby -- or rather, new babies. They bought only the highest-end baby furniture, the highest-end toys, and even the highest-end baby food. With the savings Annabelle had acquired over the years she had worked, she splurged. She wanted her babies to grow up in a happy and healthy environment, one where they would be loved and welcomed forever.

The babies were beautiful. They had shrill and strong cries, ones that could shatter even the toughest of glass panes. Doctors had remarked that they were two of the healthiest babies they had ever seen in their long careers.

Annabelle and Kieran were happy for their new children, but naming the babies proved to be an issue -- one that would have far more consequences in their relationship than one would think.

"We don't want to name them just yet, Dr. Burke." Annabelle said.

"Why not?"

Kieran smiled. "We want to take the time to pick unique names for our lovely daughters. Something they will treasure forever."

The expression on the face of Dr. Burke was unreadable. Still, he nodded. "I understand. We will give you two weeks to decide."

"Two weeks?" Annabelle asked. "B-but, why, that's not nearly enough time!"

"We need to prepare the birth certificates for the babies as well as new medical records. We will fill out everything but the names, but we need them as soon as possible within that timeframe."

Kieran nodded. "I understand."

Annabelle shot him a disappointed look. "Kieran!"

"Anna...I love you. I truly do. But we have to think about this." Kieran held his wife's hands in his own. "What lives do we want our little girls to lead?"

"Wh- what do you mean?"

You see, Kieran had dreams for his daughters. Ever since he had heard of the organization, he had wanted them -- his future children in general, really -- to join Odd Squad, to let them go and fight the oddities that cursed every corner of the world. He wanted them to be free in that regard, with him watching them and supporting them from the sidelines.

Annabelle also knew about Odd Squad, from Kieran often telling her about it and how wonderful it was. Unlike Kieran, however, she was opposed to such an idea as sending her children to join the organization, citing the fact that she didn't want them to be put in danger every day with all sorts of odd creatures and villains running around.

Where before they had hardly ever gotten into so much as a single argument, Annabelle and Kieran fought about this matter long before she was discharged from the hospital, to the annoyance of the doctors, nurses, and other patients. They fought about Odd Squad, about the dangers it posed, about the benefits it offered. Soon, Annabelle grew to despise Odd Squad and all that it stood for, while Kieran fell in love more and more with the organization.

It was Kieran who made the first move in giving the names of his newborn children to the hospital. Hearing that Odd Squad took in kids who didn't have O names and altered their names so they began with the letter spurred him to name his daughters Felicity and Peaches, which the doctors put on the birth certificates as their legal names. Of course, he did this in secret, far from the prying eyes of Annabelle -- but when she went to the hospital with names of her own only a week later, she was denied.

"W-what? What do you mean 'denied'?"

"Your husband came in and offered us names for your babies. We put them on the birth certificates a week ago. It's official."

"But I- I had a name of- I wanted- Allegra! Mercy! I wanted to name them Allegra and Mercy! And that...that bastard..."

"Ma'am, I'm really sorry. But if you want to change your daughters' names, you'll need to have both done legally through Name Change Application forms like everybody else."

Annabelle had much restraint, enough to avoid throwing a fit. She stormed out, drove home as fast as she could, and slammed open her front door to confront her husband.

"KIERAN!! You named our daughters without my consent?!"

"W-what?"

"I just went to Toronto General and they told me you named our daughters. You named them, had them put the names on the birth certificates, and now...I-I'm...do you know how hard it is to change a name in Toronto? The wait time for just their response form is ridiculous!"

"At the rate you were going, I had a feeling you were going to just leave them without!"

"What?! I would never! The hospital requires names for the babies!"

The argument dragged on and on, soon delving into nothing but shallow and worthless fallacies.

And all the while, not a single soul noticed little Felicity crawling her way out of the house, having been situated on the living room floor moments before. She made her way to the front yard, to the oak tree standing tall and proud within it, to the tube system that lied just ahead of it.

"Fine! Fine!! You know what? Fuck you! I'm leaving! I never wanted to live here in this...shitty old building that you couldn't even bother to renovate, let alone live in with you!"

"Oh, so you're gonna leave? What about our daughters?"

"You can keep them! If they want to join Odd Squad so much, then I refuse to even call them my daughters!"

Annabelle stomped out the door and right down the steps.

Kieran leaned his body outside. "I'll file the divorce papers first thing tomorrow morning!"

"Yeah, you better, you son of a bitch!"

"Swearing is pretty unbecoming of a proper lady!"

"Shut the fuck up!"

As Annabelle walked away and Kieran went back in, a sudden feeling washed over him. A feeling that sickened him to his stomach. A feeling that no father should ever have to face.

In that moment, he realized that his daughter was gone.

He turned the house upside down and inside out looking for her, but after many hours, days, weeks, months of searching, he never found her. He tried asking around town, filing missing child reports, everything that he could possibly do to get Felicity back.

Eventually, he woke up one day, went looking for her, and simply gave up. He became resigned to the fact that his daughter was gone forever. On the worst days, he became resigned to a theory, the theory that she was hurt in some manner, or completely dead.

---

"Ever since then, for eleven years, he has been living in regret, anxiety, and despair. But deep within him is a little spark of hope -- hope that his daughter will one day return to him, happy and healthy."

Olive stared at the ground, numb to the tears landing on the blades of grass like droplets of rain.

"If you let Mandy find Kieran again, Olive, you would be doing a good thing for all involved parties."

Sob after sob made the Director's body quiver. "D-d-did- I k-k-k-"

"Kidnap Mandy?" Haruko shook her head. "Of course not. Had you not rescued Mandy that fateful day, she would have passed unceremoniously, in a way I am quite sure she would not want to go out."

A wail that sounded more akin to that of a dying animal than that of an anguished human forced its way out.

"Where Annabelle had declared her intentions to leave her child in the care of whom had effectively become a single father, you have stepped up in more ways than one." Haruko closed her eyes. "Please, Olive, do not cry."

"B-but I...I raised..." Olive swallowed some saliva that had stuck to the roof of her mouth, and tried to take steady deep breaths to regulate her emotions. "I raised Mandy for eleven years, thinking she didn't have any loving parents. But she did. S-she did..." She grit her teeth. "She had...a loving father. A loving mother. A loving couple, broken up by...a name change...!"

Haruko simply tilted her head.

A bitter laugh slipped from Olive's lips, a few more tears falling as a last hurrah. "Marriage is a funny thing, huh? You have someone who's crazy about someone else propose with a big fat ring, have a big ceremony with all their friends and family and an officiant, move in together, and...they're expected to stay together for life." She rolled her drying eyes. "For a couple to be broken up over something as insignificant as the legal name change of two babies makes no sense. But I suppose it's all about perspective." Her chocolate-brown gaze moved to Haruko. "Is it possible that Annabelle and Kieran weren't the happy couple you thought they were, even before the whole name change thing? I mean, how do you even know what happened, anyway?"

For a minute or two, Haruko didn't answer, instead closing her eyes in contemplation. When she opened them again and made eye contact with Olive, her stance and gaze were rigid.

"Because I was the spirit guardian of Annabelle."

Olive's eyes widened. Her jaw hung open for a moment as her mind fixated on two things -- what a spirit guardian was, and how Haruko came to be Annabelle's. After debating on what question to ask first, she decided to bite the bullet and pick one at random. "What's a 'spirit guardian'?"

"Just as I once did with Annabelle, my job is to guide Mandy throughout her life, to be a shoulder to lean on while also giving her advice."

To Olive, that answered hardly anything. So she moved on to her second question. "Okay, so how did you become Annabelle's spirit guardian, exactly?"

"Mandy is but the most recent being in need of my guidance." Haruko responded. "My help extends far through ancestries, both hers and mine."

"So your grandmother helped Mandy's grandmother...your uncle helped Mandy's uncle...so on and so forth? Is that it?"

"You could say that, although our family members do not line up. We Elementals live quite a long time, after all."

Now Olive's mind was swirling with more questions than answers. This whole ordeal was like a difficult case with leads that reached into the twenties as a rough estimate, and she forced herself to get back on track. She wanted to learn more about Haruko, but from what she had heard, the kitsune seemed trustworthy enough in both her words and her demeanor.

"Okay. Tell me more about how you were Annabelle's spirit guardian."

Haruko smiled at the memories. "I had looked after Annabelle from childhood. She was a warm and kind spirit, who had big dreams and everlasting generosity even in spite of her rather horrific home life."

Olive opened her mouth.

"Out of respect for her, please do not inquire about it. I prefer to not share details."

Disappointed but understanding, Olive closed her mouth and simply gave a nod.

"I watched and guided her as she grew up, year after year. Where she hardly had anyone to rely on, she had me. We were like best friends."

"Hold on. You were best friends?"

Haruko sadly nodded. "Unfortunately, several months after she divorced Kieran, she...developed cancer. Which she did not survive."

A soft gasp left Olive's lips, more as an instinctual reaction than anything else. "Oh my odd..."

"To my luck, I was able to save her spirit before it was allowed to disappear into the stars above. She now roams the Grasslands as a kitsune wielding the power of fire."

This made Olive perk up considerably, even though she had questions about how, exactly, Haruko saved Annabelle's spirit. "So does that mean she's around here somewhere? Can I meet her?"

Haruko looked around the area, her expression one of hesitance. "I am not quite sure she would appear for an employee of the organization she had once vehemently despised..." She looked at the sky. "And she does not roam freely around the Grasslands as often as I do."

"Please, try." Olive begged. "If I talk to her...it would help. A lot. I would be able to...I-I mean, as mothers...except she gave birth to Mandy, not me, obviously..." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Just...y-you probably understand what I'm saying. Hopefully. Oh odd, I can feel my stress rising..."

"I understand that this is a lot to take in. And under normal circumstances, I would encourage you to stop if you feel you are getting overwhelmed." Haruko blinked. "But I feel that the more knowledge you have, the more you will be able to care for and help Mandy as she grows."

The kitsune closed her eyes and called out the name of whom had now become one of her brethren.

No response.

She tried again.

Still no response.

The wind whistled as it rushed through, moving the blades of grass to the left and sending a few loose dandelion seeds scattering.

Materializing from the dim stars in the bright blue sky right then and there, within a haze of gloriously warm yellow light, was a kitsune. Pearly-white in color, her nine tails shone with the heat and the brightness of burning flames, each seemingly crafted from fire itself. Her yellow eyes shone brightly as they landed on the duo that sat before her.

"Haruko? You called for me?"

"I did." Haruko gestured to the girl next to her. "Annabelle, I would like for you to meet Agent Olive. She is an Odd Squad agent who-"

"An Odd Squad agent?!" Annabelle's lips curled back into an ugly snarl. "Haruko, I thought I told you I did not want to associate with such filth! That organization took away my daughter and corrupted her so that her mind became filled with nothing but the most gastly poison!"

Olive blinked. Huh. From the way she talks, I'd think she was Rarity reincarnated. Though I don't associate the mare with the element of fire...and obviously she's not dead.

"Annabelle, please, do try to hear me out." Haruko pleaded, trying to keep her voice calm but not doing so well at making sure her tone didn't edge into desperation. "Olive is Mandy's adoptive mother."

The other kitsune closed her eyes and jerked her head to the side. "I will have nothing of it!"

Finally, Olive decided it was her turn to speak up. "Annabelle?" She reached out a tentative hand. "I know I'm an Odd Squad agent...no, an Odd Squad Director. I've run Precinct 73955 for a long time now." Biting her lip, she refrained from throwing in the tidbit that she would never leave Odd Squad, because, while it was true, she didn't want to anger Mandy's real mother any further. "But I raised Mandy for eleven years, in both your stead and Kieran's. I gave her all the love and care and attention I could give her, even though I didn't know anything about raising a child. I was, after all, only twelve years old...and physically, I still am."

Annabelle's right eye creaked open to a half-lidded state.

"I think you'll be happy to know that Mandy is a very well-adjusted individual. She's a little...weird...likes to scoop me up in bear hugs, shake me like a blender, and she can eat and sleep like the devil..." A chuckle came forth. "But she's brightened up my life, and that of everyone else, considerably. Odd Squad really wouldn't be the same without her." Olive scratched an idle itch on her arm. "Um...i-is...Mandy okay? As a name? I...heard the entire story from Haruko, and she mentioned you wanting to name her Allegra."

A pause. And then Annabelle gave a sharp exhale through her nose. "Yes. It's of Italian descent, like my grandfather was. It means joyful or lively." She tried to resist giving a smile, but it became clear she was losing that battle. "I wanted her to grow up to bring life to a room at any moment with her exuberant personality. I had hopes for her to become as stylish as I had wanted to be, to succeed where...where I had failed...where...!"

Her body began to shake. Neither Olive or Haruko said anything for a full minute.

"Mandy is very stylish." Olive attempted to assure, an uneven smile gracing her face that she hoped Annabelle didn't notice. "In fact, she grew up with a fashion designer. A pony from another world known as Equestria. Her name is Rarity." Her smile slowly grew more genuine as she spoke. "She is the most generous soul you could ever meet, always putting others before herself. And like you, she too is a proper lady." Olive made sure to use present tense instead of past tense, in order to avoid upsetting Annabelle anymore. "Mandy works on clothes too, although she, um...does it more as a hobby than anything else. B-but she enjoys it, really!"

Annabelle stopped shaking and fell still, her head bowed down. Although no one could see it, a small smile graced her lips as she thought of all the other wondrous things her daughter could be up to. Within those thoughts, she came to a decision.

No...she came to many decisions. At once.

"I see." Her head became raised again, and she made eye contact with Haruko. "Haruko, would you happen to know...exactly what happened to my daughter after she..."

The sentence wasn't finished, but Haruko nodded anyway. "Certainly. Olive and I would both be more than happy to tell you the story, Annabelle, if you so desire."

"Please."

For the next few minutes, Haruko and Olive both reiterated the story of the horrific pienado incident and how Mandy had been found and rescued, with Olive filling in the gaps that Haruko had missed from spotty points in her memory of the events. They watched as Annabelle reacted in horror, relief, and joy as she got wind of her daughter having nearly been killed and then having been saved by someone she had treated with disdain only a short time ago.

And then, sensing that the floodgates had been opened and things were improving, Olive decided to go a step further.

She began telling stories of her experiences in raising Mandy, from taking her to all sorts of places to the trials and tribulations of potty-training to experimenting with all sorts of foods in an effort to find out which ones she liked (which, really, were all of them), and so much more. Hearing these anecdotes raised Annabelle's spirit considerably, though it was clear there were even more troubling things on her mind.

"You feel upset because your time with Mandy would have been cut short due to your cancer diagnosis, don't you?"

Olive's question was so specific that Haruko couldn't help but widen her eyes, even more so when Annabelle gave her answer.

"I...y-yes." Clearly, Annabelle was just as surprised as her former spirit guardian. "I understand now that even if my daughter hadn't escaped, she would have grown up without a mother to care for her." Her sad gaze rested on Olive. "So in a way, perhaps her meeting you was...a stroke of fate?"

Even though Annabelle edged her words into a question, Olive blinked a few times, having not considered that angle when it came to Mandy suddenly appearing from nowhere and then being rescued from harm. Slowly she nodded. "Maybe it was."

"If it helps, Annabelle..." Haruko raised a tentative paw. "Why not travel outside of the Grasslands to meet Mandy yourself?"

Annabelle shifted. "You know I haven't been outside of the Grasslands since I died, Haruko. It...it hurts too much." She squeezed her eyes shut. "What if I see Mandy? What would I even say to her? You...you've seen her many times, and so you're used to her. But me? I simply wouldn't even know where to start."

Haruko exchanged a sympathetic glance with Olive before giving a warm smile to Annabelle. "Even though you are no longer human, Mandy will recognize you. I am sure of it. And if it is conversing with her you are worried about..." A soft chuckle bubbled forth. "I can assure you that she will have that more than covered."

"Oh definitely. Once Mandy gets going, it's hard to stop her." Olive amusedly rolled her eyes. "Her personal record for 'Longest Public Speech Given' clocks in at about four hours. And she only stopped there because she was overdue for her daily nap."

Olive's words served to ease Annabelle's worries, but also made her more and more curious as to how her daughter had grown up. She put on a brave smile. "I'll take both of your words for it." A deep breath, and she rose to a standing position. "All right. It's time for me to move forward. If I am being quite honest, staying within one place for ten years has not done many wonders for my mental health." She glanced at Haruko. "But, um, one question...can others...see me?"

"Not outside of the Grasslands, unless you wish for them to. Even I cannot be seen by anyone other than Mandy when I traverse around."

Annabelle nodded. "I see. In that case, Haruko...I would like for you to lead me to Mandy. You know her well, after all."

"Hey!"

"A-and you as well, Olive, of course!" Annabelle issued a bout of meek laughter to the Director. "Lead the way, both of you."

As Olive and Haruko both stood and began their journey towards the border, where the Grasslands met the rest of the world, Olive couldn't help but wonder if there was something she forgot.

Oh wait, now I know!

I got here by teleportation. I have no idea where I'm being taken. But if I can get to the real world, surely there's a tube nearby that leads to 13579...and if there is, I can take Haruko and Annabelle with me. Problem solved!

But even in spite of that realization, something within her gut told her that wasn't it, and so she was forced to have the gears in her mind turn as she continued to walk.

---

Peaches and Mandy had decided to continue training in Trillium Park, in order to have more room than the stuffiness that Headquarters sometimes brought.

"Mandy?"

The hybrid blinked, but didn't turn her head back to a straight position from where she had it angled to her left. "Huh?"

"Is there something I'm not seeing?" Peaches looked behind her. "You keep looking behind me, or to the left, or anywhere but at my face."

"I'm...w-well..." Mandy blinked again. "I keep seeing this man. Around. It's like he knows me or something." She shook her head. "Ahh, it's prolly nothin'. Let's get back to the transformation teachings!"

But the more Mandy went around town, the more she saw the same person.

One second she would look, and the next second he would be gone, usually by way of a tree Mandy passed or by way of a car that drove by. It made chills go up her spine, and created an uneasy feeling in her gut. She had about half a mind to go to Oprah and demand that she do something about it, simply because she was about the closest thing Toronto had to a police chief.

Finally, after hour upon hour of feeling utterly creeped out by how many times she saw him doing things around town, she decided to confront the man head-on.

In spite of Peaches telling her not to soar into oncoming traffic, Mandy did so anyway and tackled the man, sending both combatants tumbling to the ground.

"Awright, who do you think you are?! All you've been doin' is followin' me around town all day and starin' at me! If ya wanna talk to me then you'd better do it now before I send your butt hurlin' across the equator, you hear?! I'm in the middle of somethin' important so you'd better not waste my time with meaningless chitchat!"

All the man could do in response was stammer and throw up his hands.

"Mandy! Stop harassing him!" Peaches called, making sure no cars were coming from both lanes before freely jaywalking. "And get off of him, you're ruining his shirt!"

"But Peeeeeeach, this guy's been a big old creepazoid all day! If he wants to talk to me then talk to me! What's the big deal?!"

"You don't know his story!" Peaches sighed and grabbed Mandy by the torso. "Sir, let me apologize for her behavior. She's a little energetic and tends to act on impulse..." She tried to free one of her hands to help the man up, but couldn't, and so she was forced to settle for a smile. "Are you okay?"

"I-I'm..." The man rose slowly to his feet. "I'm fine." He brushed off his shirt and his pants. "I should apologize as well. It's just that...she reminds me of someone I knew."

He looked up.

Stared into Peaches' eyes.

If it weren't for the pedestrians and the vehicles passing by them, ponies and people alike, the minutes-long silence would have been deafening.

The sensation of a thrashing Mandy brought Peaches back to reality. "Mandy, stop. If I set you down, promise not to tackle this guy again."

"Okay, okay, but I think your hand's crushin' my spleen!"

Sighing, Peaches set her cousin down onto the ground and went back to gazing at the man. "I'm sorry, do I...know you?"

"I'd know those faces anywhere."

Peaches tilted her head. "Mind elaborating?"

"You're Peaches and..." The man paused for a few seconds. "...Mandy?"

Ignoring the pitiful moan of a Mandy whose body was in the process of re-forming a spleen, Peaches nodded. "I am...and she is..." she hesitantly responded. "Can we help you?"

"Ha...well, I might as well come out and say it. Please, try not to freak out."

Of course, in the mental home of Peaches, all of the red sirens and warning signs were sounding. She braced herself for what was to come, gritting her teeth and trying to steady her breathing.

"I'm your father."

A final wheeze from Mandy as she looked up at the man with bugged-out blue eyes. Peaches had the same reaction, only more verbal.

"...What."

"I'm your father. Both of yours."

More silence. Mandy being Mandy, she decided to crack the tension with an icebreaker.

"...C-can I have fries and a DNA test with that, please?"

The man simply furrowed his brows in confusion. "Please, I know this is sudden, but I'd like to invite you both to my house for a drink. We can get things straightened out there."

"Can I see your criminal record?"

"Mandy!" Peaches, momentarily free from the shock she had been experiencing, elbowed her cousin. "Don't be rude!"

"Whaaaaaat? We don't know this guy, Peach! For all we know he could kitnap us! Kidnap us! Kit-kidnap us!"

"I...Mandy, no. I'm...I'm getting this feeling. A feeling of familiarity." Peaches clenched and unclenched her hands a few times. "I think we should follow him. Besides, we could use a break from all the training we've been doing."

Mandy's mouth pinched inwards. "Fine. But maybe, just maybe, I won't save you if he decides to do whatever bad thing he's gonna do to us. Maybe."

Something told the man that his daughter, as...strange as she was, wasn't about to be easily swayed into believing the truth -- which was rather understandable in his eyes, given what he had just told them. "If you would just follow me." he urged, beginning to walk away.

A curious Peaches and a very hesitant Mandy followed suit.

---

About twenty minutes of walking later, and Peaches, Mandy, and the man stood in front of a tan-colored one-story house, right in the middle of a community that, to all of them, had the feel of a tight-knit neighborhood.

"Please, come in." The man approached the front door with keys in hand, unlocking it and opening it. "Feel free to sit anywhere you'd like."

Mandy was the first to zip on up and examine the house's interior, only after thoroughly examining the exterior and taking pictures. She began to snap photos of the interior as well, keeping her eyes squinted and not paying attention to the man and Peaches walking in.

As Peaches got settled in a recliner and the man sat on the couch, the latter glanced at Mandy. "Are you sure you wouldn't like a chair?"

"Don't bother me, I'm takin' pictures."

Peaches heaved an exaggerated sigh. "Privacy is a lost virtue on you."

"So's trust, clearly."

"Uh, so!" The man clapped his hands together. "I might as well start by introducing myself. My name is Kieran, and I've been living here in Toronto for...pretty much all of my life." He gestured to the area. "I only recently moved into this home after my wife and I divorced."

"You're divorced?" Peaches asked. "What happened?"

Kieran's eyes moved from side to side. "Um..." He twiddled his fingers. "Before I get to that, perhaps I should repeat myself. I'm your father, Peaches. I'm...also Mandy's father."

Now the shock began to push its way forth in Peaches again. "I-I'm sorry, this...it's just hard to believe. We're cousins."

"No, more than that. You and...Mandy are sisters." Kieran smiled. "Sorry, I'm still getting used to Mandy's name. She wasn't always called that, you know."

"Oh?"

"Oh!" Kieran got up with a lot more effort than it should have taken a man of his age to get up, giving a hefty grunt. "I'm so sorry, where are my manners? I forgot to ask you two if you'd like something to eat or drink. I have some cheese and crackers in the kitchen, and I have all sorts of drinks too."

"I'll take some cheese and crackers. And just water is fine."

"And for you, Mandy?"

"Get me whatever, I'm busy!" The voice came from somewhere inside the house -- Kieran placed it as being in the bathroom.

A few minutes later, some cheese and crackers, along with three glasses of water, were set on the table. Peaches eagerly went for a piece of cheese and a cracker, popping it into her mouth.

"Is it good?"

Peaches nodded.

"Good." Kieran took a deep breath. "Anyway, as I was saying, Mandy wasn't always called Mandy. And you...you weren't always called Peaches."

Luckily, Peaches took the time to swallow her snack before she spoke. "I...r-really? You don't say!" She put on a lopsided grin. "Uh, what...what were our names, exactly?"

"You were going to be Mercy. And Mandy was going to be Allegra."

Peaches' mouth turned into a frown as her nose wrinkled. "Mercy?" She blinked. "I, uh, think I'll stick with Peaches. Mercy is...well, it doesn't really sit with me. Though I guess it fits with the naming theme of Vallea...somewhat..."

Hearing the name of the town made Kieran's eyes widen, but as he opened his mouth to speak, Mandy came storming into the living room, grabbing a few slices of cheese and a few crackers in her telekinetic field.

"Mandy, where are you going?"

"To Toronto General, cuz."

"And why are you going there?"

"I want to see if Kieran..." Mandy spat out the name with as much venom as she could pump into it. "...is really my dad or not. If I can get ahold of some info, then-"

"You could just look it up online."

Mandy paused. Considered it for a moment. Then nodded. "All right. Then I'm goin' back to Odd Squad."

"Nonsense!" Kieran waved a hand. "I have a computer in my bedro-"

Within five seconds, Mandy was in and out, laptop bag in hand. She quickly set up the device, turned it on, and got to work punching the keys into a search engine, Peaches sitting beside her on the couch.

"Ah, yes. 'Birth, Marriage and Death Records in Ontario', less'see..." Mandy clicked on the search result and promptly groaned when the first thing that popped up was a link to The Ontario Name Index. Still, she clicked on it, punched in Kieran's first name as well as the year he was born and his location once she retrieved it, and waited.

After about five minutes, his name popped up.

"This you?"

Kieran studied the result. "Yeah, that's me."

Mandy clicked.

Read the result.

Widened her eyes as one particular thing caught her eye.

KIERAN CURRENTLY SURVIVED BY: Felicity, Peaches (daughters)

There was more beyond that, but her brain forced her to stop before she got past the "survived by his daughters" bit.

Her mouth ran dry as she flashed back to the nightmare that the Dream Weaver had planted in her brain. That woman, holding her baby tight, leaving her to go to a fancy party...the Dream Weaver telling her that it had been dug out from the darkest depths of her mind.

At the time, Mandy hadn't believed her. Why would she, when she had twisted her mind to make Olive and everyone else enemies who had brutally assaulted her? Who was to say that the illusion of that woman and her baby wasn't just that, a kind of twisted version of who Mandy's mother actually was?

But now...Mandy knew. That particular illusion was no mere illusion. It was real, right down to the name.

She had been watching herself in infancy.

She read the text on the computer over and over again, unable to comprehend it. It wasn't just the fact that she had realized the man sitting next to her was really, truly, beyond a shadow of a doubt, her real father -- it was the fact that she had realized the catgirl sitting next to her was really, truly, beyond a shadow of a doubt, her sister.

We were never cousins.

We were never cousins.

We were never cousins.

All this time...she's been my...m-my...

She looked from Kieran to Peaches and back again. Peaches in particular looked to be in a similar amount of shock from what was displayed onscreen, though she still looked like she had a head on her. Mandy's, however, had metaphorically rolled on down to The Lone Star State and set up a house to retire in.

My name...my name's not even Mandy.

It was really Felicity.

I...w-what...who...

Slowly, the hybrid glanced down at her hands. Her breathing came in quick bursts, a sign that she was just on the edge of having a panic attack that could only come about as a reaction that most people would have.

A shame Mandy wasn't "most people".

With her eyes rolling up in her head, she slumped forward, her head colliding with the table before it, along with the rest of her body, hit the floor and bounced a little ways like a basketball on the last fringes of its life.

"Oh God!" Kieran quickly knelt down. "A-are you okay?!"

"She'll be fine." Peaches said, breaking her concentration to gaze at Kieran. "She just fainted from shock."

"I'll put her in my room."

As Kieran scooped Mandy up, gave a groan as he underestimated how heavy she was, and carried her to his bed, Peaches rubbed her head as her mind began swirling with thoughts -- about how her name had been Mercy, about how she was Mandy's sister, about how her memories of growing up in Vallea had lined up with the realization that King Ashero had lied about her true origins. She felt a headache begin to grow, and she took another cheese-and-cracker snack in an attempt to try and lessen its pain.

She was so deep within her thoughts that she hadn't noticed Kieran walk into the living room, mouthing words that she didn't understand.

"Huh?"

"Oh, I said I just laid Mandy down. Do you know...how long she's going to be out for?"

"Who knows." Peaches said hurriedly. "But forget about her. I need to know more about...all this. I want to get things straight."

"Okay." Kieran sat down next to her. "Why don't I start from when my wife was pregnant?"

Peaches nodded, and Kieran began to explain his side of things.

---

I had always wanted a child to call my own. I wanted to grow the family, to have a fresh face around the house. But most of all, I wanted a child that I could send to Odd Squad -- the organization I had heard about, the one who saved the world on a daily basis and protected all of us from harm. I wanted a child that could do the same thing, a child that I could be proud of. I tried dropping hints of this to my wife, but she didn't seem to realize it.

Eventually, she took a pregnancy test and...I found out I was going to be a dad. I was more than overjoyed, especially when I found out that she was growing two new lives inside of her. We went all out in buying stuff for you and your sister, the highest-quality stuff we could afford. The nine months of waiting was pure agony, even more so when we came to the collective decision that we wouldn't name you two right away because we wanted to pick out the best names.

I remember being there, the day you were born. Hearing you and your sister's shrill cries after those of my wife had died down was incredible. Dr. Burke, who had been treating us, approved of our decision to not name you on the spot, but told us we would need to do so within two weeks. That was more than enough time for me, because it gave me the opportunity to really think of the lives I wanted you two to lead.

I knew my wife disapproved of Odd Squad and the kids who worked for it. But that didn't stop me. We had disagreements that ended in truces...at least, up until you two were born. After that, we argued constantly. My stress levels rose. Neither one of us changed our minds -- instead, we only kept sticking by what we said, even when we went to drop you off in Vallea.

Finally, I had enough. Before the two-week deadline was up, I went to the hospital and gave the doctors your names, Felicity and Peaches. They put it on the certificates and made it official, and I thought that even though I hadn't told my wife, that would be the end of it.

Until I had been relaxing on my day off from work and heard the door slam open.

It was one of the worst arguments I ever had with my wife, but I don't have any regrets about what I said. She had procrastinated on giving the doctors names, and when she left, she didn't even stop to think about you two. I, however, looked for Felici- er, Mandy when she disappeared, and I looked constantly. When I wasn't at work or dealing with the aftermath of the divorce, I was looking for her.

One day, I woke up, prepared myself for another day of sales, and convinced myself that Mandy was never coming back. She was dead, and that was it. I was waiting for a knock on my door that never came. I remember falling into a deep depression after that, and my doctor prescribed me antidepressants. That's what I've been holding onto all these years.

---

"Wait, wait." Peaches held a hand up. "What was that? After 'we argued constantly'?"

"We dropped you off in Vallea." Kieran paused to taste the name on his tongue. "Do you...not remember?"

Peaches shook her head. "I...n-no. I mean...yes?" She blinked. "I was fed lie after lie by King Ashero about my origins. It wasn't until I eavesdropped on him and his idiotic assistant that I learned the truth." Her eyes began to water. "So the couple that dropped me off...that was you and your wife?"

"Yes. Believe it or not, some of my ancestors are catpeople, and I had heard about Vallea from them." Kieran closed the laptop in an effort to save the power of the built-in battery. "So when you were born, I decided to leave you there, in order to give you a better life that Toronto could not." He frowned. "It seems that didn't pan out the way I expected, huh?"

Peaches sighed. "Not in the slightest. I was mocked, bullied and ostracized by all of the townspeople." she reiterated. "And then, when I was exiled under the guise of finding out who burned the town down, I met Mandy, and we became friends." She stopped and tapped her chin in thought. "Or I guess...'reunited with Mandy' would be a better way to put it."

"Vallea burned down?"

"Yeah. The damage was pretty bad. But I'm willing to bet they've rebuilt a lot of it by now."

The conversation came to a lull as Kieran absorbed the information. After a few minutes, he nodded. "I see. I'm really sorry that happened to you, Peaches. You don't deserve that."

"Oh, don't worry about it." Peaches waved a dismissive hand and smirked. "Ashero will get what's coming to him eventually. I, for one, am hoping it'll be by Mandy's hands."

Kieran nodded in agreement. "Believe me, my ancestors were told enough bad things about Ashero. It's time he goes."

Right then and there, the conversation died down again, and stayed that way for far more than a few minutes. More than one glance was shot towards the bedroom.

"So, uh...why don't you tell me what you've been up to all these years? I'm sure you have lots of stories to share."

Peaches perked up at the opportunity, eagerly nodded. "All right. When I ran into Mandy for the first time in years..."

---

"She WHAAAAAT?!"

The angry bellow shook the castle walls, but did not do so much as rattle the guards, who stayed as firm and as rigid as ever. It did, however, rattle the multicolor-haired catgirl standing before her leader.

"She...she went with this man. Said that he was her father."

A loud creaking sound produced a groan that bounced throughout the room. "I cannot believe it. She found out about her origins!" the tyrant roared. "Oh, I should have killed those humans while I had the chance...!"

"Um...King Ashero?"

"What?"

The catgirl flinched. "S-should we...kill...Peaches?"

"Absolutely not. You...peasants killing Peaches is forbidden." Ashero gave a derisive snort. "She shall be killed by my paws and my paws alone."

"I...see..."

Ashero fell silent, contemplating his next move. The air only grew more and more ominous for the next minute or so as his mind swam with ideas.

"All right." He slowly opened his eyes. "So perhaps Peaches has figured out her true origins. But there is still the matter of her treachery at hand. If we can kill her, absolutely nothing of value will be lost." A smirk began to form. "And that poor pitiful half-breed, all of her pathetic friends, will be grieving, in such vulnerable states that it will be easy to capture them and kill them all."

"B-but Your Majesty, I thought...we were just killing Peaches and Mandy."

Ashero's eyebrow raised. "Did you not hear my announcement yesterday, Rine?" His smirk flipped upside down. "My goals have shifted. If we are to capture and kill Peaches and Mandy, we mustn't stop at just them. We mustn't stop at just Olive and Otto."

His eyes narrowed.

"We stop at all of them. Those tiny horses, that bun-haired brat. All of them need to perish from this world, for the safety of me and my subjects!"

Rine shivered.

"And of course...how could I forget?" Ashero's furry tail-tip flicked. "Dare I say we have two new contenders to deal with?"

"Y-you mean...Peaches' parents?"

"Yes." Ashero grinned. "If we can eliminate them, then Vallea will finally be at peace."

As his rip-roaring malicious laugh echoed through the quarters, ideas began forming in his mind for just how, exactly, he was going to take said parents down.

The solution was, of course, right in front of him. The solution was sent out almost immediately without question or hesitation. The solution would get the job done, and he knew it. After all, to not get it done would result in swift and painful execution, and none of his fellow townsfo- subjects wanted that.

If he were so inclined, maybe, just maybe, he would oversee the execution himself, right in Toronto.

---

Olive wasn't really sure how long it took to get to Precinct 13579 from the Magical Grasslands, mainly because her mental stopwatch had died unceremoniously about a quarter of the way into the journey. But she supposed that didn't matter, given that she had already bounced from the precinct to Trillium Park with no sign of Mandy.

"Oh, is this her favorite park?" the sparkling celestial form of Annabelle asked, looking around at all of the people and ponies hanging out within it. "It looks just as lovely as I remember it."

"Huh. Oprah said she and Peaches were here." Olive mused. "Maybe they moved somewhere else."

Haruko closed her eyes, not saying anything for a few moments.

"Are you thinking about something, Haruko?"

"No. I am attempting to feel for Mandy's current state." A soft gasp left her maw. "She is...she..." And then, they closed again. "Ah. She is at peace now."

Annabelle sharply jerked her head towards Haruko. "What do you mean, she is at peace now? She wasn't at peace before?"

"She was in a state of unconsciousness. But I can..." Haruko paused. "I can sense that she is alive and asleep."

Olive's eyebrows furrowed. "How...if someone faints, they can't just go from..." She blinked. "But Mandy can. Of course. Only Mandy."

"What?!" The word was practically a scream, befitting of a mother who had lost her child once and didn't want to lose her again. "What happened?!"

"Mandy fainted. From there, she transitioned from being unconscious to being asleep. Like..." Olive bit her lip. "Like someone opened up her head and poured a big bucket of dreams in it, I guess?"

"But why did she faint?" Annabelle looked around, desperate for an exit. "Ohhh, we simply must find her! I must know she's okay!"

"Annabelle, please, do calm down. Panicking will not help us find Mandy." Haruko urged. "Perhaps it is possible that some of the citizens have seen her."

Olive shook her head. "Better idea. Have you heard of a little device called a 'cellphone', Haruko?"

Which was, of course, the easy way out of the entire predicament, as Peaches managed to pick up after only four ringback tones.

"Um...hello?"

"Peaches? It's Olive. Where are you right now?"

"I...uh...it's a little hard to answer right now. Why?"

Olive shot a wink at Annabelle and Haruko before continuing. "We're trying to find Mandy and we don't know where she is. She was with you, so we were thinking maybe you could help us out."

"Oh." Peaches gave a breathy anxiety-filled chuckle. "Um, and why are you trying to find her, exactly?"

Olive felt the sweat bead form, and then felt it roll down her face. "If I tell you, it's going to be in-person and when you're sitting down."

A pause.

"Yeah, you know what? Same here." Peaches' laughter sounded almost unhinged and forced, like someone was literally beating the laughs right out of her with a club. "We're, uh, at The View Pointe. It's a little community of apartments. 12 Bellow Avenue."

"If you let Mandy rent an apartment, then you and I are going to have words."

"She's not getting an apartment!" Peaches sighed. "Just...come here. There's a lot to discuss."

The catgirl hung up, leading Olive to snap her badge phone closed and clip it to her suit.

"Haruko, you wouldn't happen to know where Bellow Avenue is?"

A moment of thought. "It sounds rather familiar..."

"Or The View Pointe?"

And then a nod. "Ah, yes. I remember passing by that at some point."

"Great! Lead the way!"

---

As Annabelle, Haruko and Olive walked down Bellow Avenue, the former couldn't stop the nervous aura that began to radiate from her.

"Are you nervous, Annabelle?"

Annabelle moved her head towards Haruko, who had saddled up beside her. "Perhaps a little. I'm more than willing to take your word and that of Olive's about Mandy being quite a conversationalist, but my anxiety hasn't completely left me." She looked straight ahead. "I just feel like something is going to happen, and I can't tell what, exactly."

"I see." Haruko nodded. "In whatever case, Olive and I shall be by your side to support you."

"Thank you."

Reaching 12 Bellow Avenue was an easy feat, especially when the numbers plastered on the fronts of the apartments were all made out of red LED lighting. Olive decided to take the liberty of ringing the doorbell.

It was a rather long ten-note tune, one that echoed through the ears of everyone, but even its pleasantness didn't remove the awkward tension that came from waiting.

And waiting.

And waiting.

The door opened, though neither Peaches nor Mandy were on the other end. "Oh, M-Ms. O! Er, sorry, I mean...uh...w-whatever your name is."

"Just Olive is fine, sir."

"Right. Anyway, how can I help you, Olive?"

"Well, I'm here with Ha-" She stopped. Blinked. Looked to her right.

And came to the sudden realization that the man standing in front of her couldn't see neither Haruko nor Annabelle.

"I'm here alone..." Olive mentally slapped herself for how weak that amendment was. "...to get a few people I know. Peaches and Mandy."

"Oh! Yeah, I have them right here. Please, come in."

Olive did so, and was immediately met with a view of Peaches sitting on the couch politely, giving her a smile.

"Olive! Oh, you made it." Peaches stood up. "I was worried you wouldn't find us."

"...I have a GPS built into my tablet. Also I've lived here for longer than you have."

A pause. "Really now? Aha...ha..." Peaches put on a lopsided grin. "Um, anyway, I figure you want to see where Mandy is." She glanced at the man. "Ki- I- I mean Dad...is it okay if I give Olive a peek into your room?"

"Go ahead."

Peaches had actively avoided slipping up, but it was made quite clear that Olive had noticed -- and not that the catgirl knew, but so did Haruko. Annabelle, on the other hand, simply stared at Kieran in wordless shock, her mouth running dry as she became at a loss for what to say. With her standing rigid, Haruko, Peaches and Olive decided to head to the bedroom.

A loud muffled snore pierced through the door.

"How many decibels is that?" Peaches asked.

"Well, if I had to venture a guess..." Olive paused. "I'd say it's almost equal to a jet plane taking o-"

She paused again.

Turned around.

Looked through the entire room.

Laid eyes on Kieran.

Proceeded to glance at the door to the bedroom and at Kieran, struggling to decide what to tackle first.

Ultimately decided to go for Mandy first, if only to alleviate some of the shock she was feeling.

Heaving a sigh, Olive opened the door, and was immediately met with what was perhaps one of the most undignified portrayals of a sleeping Mandy she had ever seen.

The hybrid, lying stomach-side down on a pillow, had given a hearty goodbye to a majority of the sheets, her body sprawled out and positioned in a way only befitting that of a chalk outline of a contortionist. The snores she gave were wall-cracking, though surprisingly not in the literal sense, as drool poured from her mouth and onto the bed. And to the trio's relief, she was in her usual form.

"She hasn't shapeshifted, has she?" Olive asked of Peaches.

"Nope. She's been like this since she fainted."

"And exactly why did she faint?"

Peaches blinked. "Ahh...um...it's related to that thing I have to tell you. If you could sit on the couch?"

"Mmmrrrrrr...Momma, I love you..."

Olive stared at her daughter, then looked at Annabelle. Going by the way she was still watching Kieran in shock, she didn't seem to process Mandy's sleep-talk, which was a shame because if the Director was being honest, she would have liked to see her reaction. Still, she closed the door and moved towards the couch as Peaches instructed, taking a seat beside her.

"Kieran- uh, Dad?" Peaches glanced at the man. "There's someone you should...um...meet. Personally."

"Hi. Kieran, right? You must be Mandy's...real...father." Olive wore a lopsided grin as she stuck her hand out. "I'm Olive, Mandy's adoptive mother."

Haruko watched with concern as the pair shook hands, the awkwardness and tension between them getting under her fur more than she'd care to admit.

"So you're the one who's been taking care of my daughter all these years, huh?" Kieran said. "It's nice to finally meet you."

"Likewise!"

Silence, until a shimmering noise brought everyone's attention to Annabelle.

"Kieran?" came the soft voice. "Can you see me?"

Going by the man's shocked expression, it was obvious he didn't need to give any verbal answer. Regardless, a single name slipped from his lips. "A-Annabelle?"

"Oh my God." Annabelle's eyes began to water. "I-it's...it...I can't believe it." Just as suddenly, her eyes narrowed. "Why do you have my daughters?"

"You mean daughter? Singular? Because we dropped off one daughter." Kieran's eyes narrowed in kind. "You abandoned the other one."

"And you let her escape!"

"But look who's taking care of her!"

Annabelle stammered. "Y-y-yeah, well...she did a fine job...but still!"

"Look, all you need to know is that I saw Peaches and Mandy around town and thought they looked familiar. So I invited them to my house for some food and drinks, and I told them the truth." Kieran explained. "I told them that I was their father."

"And what of their mother?"

Kieran had no rebuttal to that. He glanced at Peaches, who was staring at both of them wordlessly -- whatever Annabelle had done to reveal herself to Kieran had worked on the catgirl as well, but it was unclear how, exactly, she was taking the news of a kitsune being her mother.

Annabelle gave a hmpf noise. "I thought so. Did you also tell them they were sisters?"

"...Yeah."

This got a groan. "Well! Then I suppose I shall have to take the liberty of telling them the other truth myself, hmm?"

As Annabelle approached Peaches, the catgirl felt behind her for the couch, and exhaled in relief when her rump met the cushion. "So...y-you're...my mother?"

"Yes. I am your mother, as well as Kieran's ex-wife."

"So you're the one who dropped me off in Vallea?"

Annabelle nodded.

Peaches gripped the end of her skirt, looking down at the floor. She wasn't sure what to say first.

"I am not a kitsune." Annabelle assured, or at least tried to. "Unfortunately, I am also not alive. I...had a rather arduous battle with cancer."

Peaches lifted her head and stared into the green eyes that were full of remorse and sadness. Her own eyes became filled with the same emotions. "I'm so sorry." was the only thing she could say.

"Thank you." Annabelle looked at Olive and Haruko, the latter of whom couldn't be seen by Peaches. "With Olive's and Haruko's help, I have been able to begin moving on. I want..." Her mouth ran dry for a minute. "I want to spend all the time with you that I can. You and Mandy both. While I am able to appear to you."

Haruko opened her mouth to tell her the whole deal surrounding that kind of power, but closed it a second later, not wanting to ruin the moment.

"And as for you..." Annabelle turned to Kieran and sighed in defeat. "I suppose continuing our spat even through my death is a rather fruitless endeavor. I'm still unhappy that you went behind my back to give the doctor names for our daughters that I never approved of..." She closed her eyes. "But there is no changing them now."

"Actually..." Olive chimed in. "Mandy's juggling three different names now."

"And it was her realizing that she had been named Felicity that made her faint to begin with." Peaches added. "I don't know how she's going to feel if she realizes that she has a third name. And I don't know which name she's going to choose to keep." She gestured towards the laptop and the table it sat on, which had been moved to the left end of the couch. "So it looks like you and Kieran are going to have a form to fill out."

Everyone's gazes moved towards the door of the bedroom. Kieran's moved to the clock after a minute.

"So when is Mandy going to wake up, again?"

---

An hour later, Mandy stumbled out of the bedroom, a yawn slipping from her mouth. "Mm, wow, was that a good sleep! That bed feels so nice and homely. Best rest I've ever gotten!"

She stared at the group that had gathered in the living room.

The members of said group stared back.

"Y'know, if ya wanted to have a party, the least you could've done was invite me."

"Mandy?" Annabelle took a few cautious steps forward. "It's...is it really you?"

Mandy glanced at the kitsune that had stopped at the end of the couch. She tilted her head. "Yeah? Who're you?"

"My name is Annabelle. I'm your mother."

A pause as thick as cake batter hung in the room. Mandy took a step back. "Y-you...you're..."

"I am also Kieran's ex-wife. Unfortunately deceased."

Mandy wasn't sure how to respond. She settled for a bite of her lower lip.

"Please, don't be alarmed. I only wish to talk."

The shock that radiated throughout Mandy's body pushed itself aside to make room for dread. Oh. Right. I was looking up Kieran online and then I saw I was named Felicity...and I... She looked at her hands. What happened to me?

"You fainted." Peaches responded, having heard Mandy's thought being voiced aloud. "And then you fell asleep."

Mandy's eyes drifted to Olive and to Haruko, staring at her with concern. And then she looked at the strange kitsune who called herself Annabelle and claimed to be her mother.

If she was being honest, it was starting to become overwhelming. Too overwhelming.

"Please, sit on the couch. I have much I would like to discuss with you."

Wordlessly, but still very much wanting to cry, Mandy trudged towards the couch and sat. She watched as Annabelle moved to do the same.

"Kieran...is this really your wife? Is...is this really my mother?"

The question had slipped out without the hybrid's consent. Regardless, the man already had an answer.

"Ex-wife, yes. We were married for five years."

Mandy buried her face in her hands.

"Mandy?" Haruko came and sat on the other side of the hybrid. "I do not know if you received the full story from Kieran, but I would like to tell you it regardless. I have already told Olive, and of course I feel you have every right to know as well." She placed a gentle paw on the hybrid's knee. "This is all very overwhelming for you, is it not?"

She didn't answer for a minute or two, just stared at Haruko like she didn't comprehend the question. She supposed answering it would be better than running off to cry and holing herself up in her room like she wanted to and inadvertently worrying everyone, and perhaps talking to Haruko would relieve her of her worries. She nodded.

"I sympathize." Haruko slightly tilted her head. "Perhaps you were not quite as ready to find out your true origins as I had thought you were. But setting that aside..." She smiled. "I would like for you to know that you have options, Mandy. You have the freedom and autonomy to choose from those options. And of course, I am here to help you if you need it."

Something in her spirit guardian's words -- Mandy wasn't sure what -- opened up the floodgates in her brain that cut off communication with her mouth.

"It's just so surreal, I mean Peach is my sister and Annabelle's my real mom and Kieran's my real dad and them breaking up because of a name change and I don't know if I'm ever gonna get to be around Momma again because they prolly want me to come live with them and maybe they'll take Peach back too but I really don't wanna go and I wanna stay with Mommaaaaaa!"

The sound of a pitiful wail filled the room, but quickly became muffled as Mandy buried her face into Haruko's chest and cried. Even in the kitsune's sparkling form, she still had substance to her that allowed Mandy to seek physical comfort in her instead of phasing past her. With this power, she wrapped a paw and a leg around Mandy's back, allowing her to cry for as long as she needed to.

No one said anything. Annabelle and Kieran exchanged worried glances, while Olive and Peaches moved to hug and comfort Mandy.

"I don't wanna go..."

"And you do not have to." Haruko murmured. "If you wish to stay with Mo- er, Olive..." A small blush crept on her cheeks for a moment. "...then you are more than welcome to."

A hiccup, and then a sniffle. "R-really?"

"Really." Olive smiled. "You're a part of Odd Squad, Mandy. You're a part of me. I'm not gonna cast you out just because you found your real parents."

Peaches' heart began to warm, as her own worries about the future began to slowly ebb away. Had she let them fully consume her, she would have been no better off than Mandy, but thanks to her more mature sense of self, she still stood. "Me being your sister, Annabelle and Kieran being my real mom and dad, me being abandoned in Vallea...it all comes as a great shock to me too. I mean, who'd have thought?" She gave a soft chuckle. "But then I realized something. All that just means we can be closer than ever."

Mandy took in a broken inhale of air, lifted herself up, and stared at Haruko. The frown, however, remained on her face when she looked at Annabelle and Kieran. She had no idea what was going through their heads, and it scared her.

In actuality, both of their hearts were hurting from how tormented their daughter was, how distraught she was over having to make so many decisions, how they would have to give her up and let her lead the life she had come to know and love. The same went for Peaches, as well, though she didn't seem as worried as her sister.

"Mandy..." Kieran spoke up first. "I'd...we'd...like to ask you a question."

Annabelle smiled. "What would you like to do?"

Six words. Six words that granted Mandy all the independence she could ever want. She had been asked the question quite a few times, though that was usually when she was bored or when she was given a choice of cases instead of having one seemingly at random plopped into her hands.

Now, it came with the context of "in the midst of my real family being uncovered, what do I want to do with my life?"

What would she choose? Did she want to continue living and working at Headquarters, just like she had been? Did she really want to live with her parents, and continue to work for Odd Squad? Did she want to retire and live a peaceful life with her parents?

The third option made her shudder in fear. No way that was happening anytime soon. Maybe when she got gray hairs, creaky joints, and a cane, but that was a long ways away.

The second option seemed more plausible, but something residing innately within her made her feel weird about it. Like it wasn't normal. Like it was a crafted fantasy of what adults thought Odd Squad agents did when she knew none of it was true.

The first option...

She glanced at Peaches. At Olive. At Haruko. She wanted to stay with all of them. She wanted to live with them. She wanted them to come to her wedding, her childbirth, her funeral. They had loved her, and she had loved them. She couldn't just say goodbye to them.

A painful lump formed in her throat as her gaze came to rest on her real parents. "D-do you promise you won't get mad? No matter what?"

"We promise." Annabelle assured.

Mandy looked deep into her eyes. She looked at Kieran's, even through his nodding head. They both told her one thing.

They were being genuine, through every word and every syllable.

She tried to swallow the lump. It remained. Tears began to fill her eyes again. She tried to blink them away.

"O...kay. Okay." She sniffled, and made as much eye contact with both of them as her two eyeballs would allow without drifting out of alignment. "I..."

A comforting hand rubbed her back. She didn't bother to look back to see who it was.

"I want...I want to keep living in Odd Squad."

Silence. Though to her, it might as well be the ominous equivalent to deathly screeching.

She waited for them to say something. Anything. All they did was look at each other in a way she couldn't describe. It sickened her.

"Whatever you wish." Annabelle said.

"If you want to live in Odd Squad, then you're more than welcome to." Kieran added.

The nausea went away, slowly but surely. Relief began flowing through her. "Y-you...do you mean it? The truth? The whole truth?"

"And absolutely nothing but the truth." Kieran gave a pleasant smile. "Just make sure to visit us often. Say...once a week?"

"I-it's just...Odd Squad's always been my home. It's where I was raised and it's where I grew up. It's...I can't imagine..."

"Mandy." Annabelle took a step forward. "You don't have to justify your decision. Whatever you choose to do is just fine with us." She took a few more steps forward, hopped up onto the couch, and raised a paw to wipe her daughter's tears away. Surprisingly, the act of doing so worked the same way anyone would wipe someone else's tears away, instead of phasing right through Mandy. "Please, do not cry, sweetie. It hurts me to see you cry. To see tears stain this beautiful face...the face of my little girl..."

Mouth going dry, Mandy gave a shaky gasp. Such talk, the words like "sweetie" and "honey" and all the nicknames parents gave their children, was rare for her to hear, in part because Olive wasn't the maternal type. She was the type to vomit in her mouth if an adult so much as called her "dear". Over the years, Mandy hadn't really minded it, because Olive expressed her love in many other ways to make up for it, but hearing the words from her birth mother made her realize just how much of a deficiency she had growing up.

Annabelle had asked her not to cry.

Mandy did so anyway.

She cried, and scooped up Annabelle in a hug, burying her face in her fur like she had done with Haruko's and sobbing. It warmed her heart to hear the words now. She couldn't see it, but Annabelle's face morphed into one of surprise, and stayed that way for a few moments before she closed her eyes, smiled, and brought a leg up to wrap around Mandy's backside.

The pair stayed like that for several minutes. Kieran, Peaches, Haruko and Olive all watched with pleasant smiles on their faces.

Finally, when Mandy's body quaked with the last sob, she pulled away and dried her own tears. "I..." She swallowed some saliva that had stuck to the roof of her mouth. "I'm sorry, i-it's just..." A sniffle. "...those words you used, I..." A hiccup. "I never heard them."

Annabelle blinked and gazed at Olive. "Never?"

"I-In my defense..." Olive held her hands up. "When I rescued her, I didn't know anything about being a mother. I had to look things up on the Internet, read all sorts of books...and..." She awkwardly shuffled her feet. "I'm not really...the type to enjoy being called 'sweetie' and all that. But I loved her all the same, in my own...special way?"

The look in Annabelle's eyes was unidentifiable, but her words did most of the talking when it came to her emotions. "I see. Each and every parent has their own ways of raising a child, I suppose."

A warm feeling overtook Mandy's back, and she turned to the window to find the sun setting. "Oh, it's getting dark already. What time is it?"

Olive pulled back her sleeve to check her watch. "6 o' clock." She looked up. "We should get going. Odd knows you don't want to miss dinner."

"Wait!" Mandy stretched out a hand. "Do me a favor?"

"Hmm?"

"Go back...go back to Headquarters and tell Oprah that..." Mandy squeezed her eyes shut, the brevity of her decision weighing in her mind. "Tell her that I'm staying here for a week. I'm taking another vacation."

Peaches' eyes widened at the proposal of her cousin -- no, her sister -- taking another vacation. "Another one? What for?"

"Because I wanna spend all the time I can with...Mom and Dad." The words tasted weird on Mandy's tongue. "I can't do that if I'm working for most of the day." She glanced at said mom and dad. "Is...is that okay with you two? Will there be room?"

Kieran smiled. "Of course! It's a two-bedroom house, so I can set up the guest bedroom for you to sleep in."

"Can I stay too?" Peaches offered. "I...um..." Her glance at Mandy was brief. "Actually, uh...yeah, I'd like to spend time with you two as well."

The sweat on the catgirl's face was obvious. However, no one seemed to have caught on, and if they did, no one said anything.

"Sure!" Kieran glanced at the other bedroom, which was located next to the one Mandy had slept in. "You two can share a room."

"All right! Roomies!" Her energy having suddenly been brought back, Mandy threw her hands into the air. "C'mon, Peach, I gotta go pack! You gotta go pack! We gotta go pack!"

"Haha...yeah...yeah I do." Peaches' eyes bulged, her gaze growing into a thousand-yard stare. "Yeah I do..."

This out-of-character moment was one that most everyone in the room did pick up on. Still no one commented. Peaches and Mandy quickly said goodbye to Olive, Haruko, Annabelle and Kieran and rushed out of the house to the nearest tube entrance.

Olive was the first to react with a sigh. "Something's up with Peaches." She got up. "I'd better go see what it is."

"And Annabelle?" Haruko eyed the other kitsune. "I believe it is time we leave for the Magical Grasslands. I would like to make it back before dark."

"Huh? Oh! Yes." Annabelle chuckled. "When we get back, perhaps you can answer some questions about this...form?"

"Of course."

With that, Olive, Annabelle and Haruko all left, leaving only Kieran alone in his own home as he gave a happy sigh and moved towards the kitchen to get started on cooking dinner.

---

Unfortunately for Olive, she wasn't quick in making it back to Precinct 13579's Headquarters, meaning that she couldn't talk to Oprah about Mandy's impromptu vacation and then talk to Peaches. It had to be the other way around, and the Director could only hope she could talk to her senior in the department before she left for the day. For now, though, she decided to get ahold of Peaches before she and Mandy left.

She peered into the catgirl's room, where she had a lot more than just one suitcase packed. Olive counted three on the bed alone, all of them appearing to have come from Rarity. "Peaches?"

The catgirl, with hair and tail sticking straight upwards and completely bushed, gave a startled yowl as she turned around, jumping a foot or so into the air and staring at who had disturbed her. "O-Olive! Don't do that!"

"Sorry, sorry." Olive gave a meek smile. "Can I come in, please? We need to talk."

Peaches hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "All right. It's not fair that I have to keep this bottled in, anyway."

"HelloImdonecanwego?!" Mandy's skid let her land straight in the pathway of the doorway. Leaning to her right with two suitcases in her corona, she frantically waved.

Both Peaches and Olive exchanged a glance, as if asking who had to be the one to break Peaches' issue to Mandy.

"Not...yet." Peaches, as nervous as she was, took initiative. "Before we go, we need to talk. Come in here and close the door."

Mandy was confused, but still did as she was told.

"And drop your suitcases."

She did, right on the floor.

"Good. Now sit."

She did, right on the floor, with a big fat grin on her face.

"Good." Peaches and Olive sat on the bed, the former clearing her throat. "I...I have something to tell you, and please, don't get mad...or sad..."

Mandy pulled out half of a chicken sandwich from hammerspace and began chewing it in anticipation.

A heavy sigh left Peaches. "I think I want to stay with..." She sucked air through her teeth -- like Mandy, she found it hard to spit out the names. "...Mom and Dad. On a permanent basis."

Mandy's expression didn't change. She swallowed her sandwich bite and then promptly stuffed the rest of it in her mouth.

Olive and Peaches leaned forward a little, and waited.

"...Sorry, I was starin' at the wall. What'd you say?"

Olive audibly groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose.

Peaches did too, but hers was more quiet and resigned. "I think I want to live with..." Again, she found it hard to say the names. "...Mom and Dad." She held her hands out. "N-not a definite, but...just as a sort of trial run."

An eye twitch. A mouth twitch. And then the jaws parted.

"YOU WANNA ABANDON FREE REAL ESTATE?!" Mandy clung to Peaches' legs. "No, even worse! Even worse than abandoning free real estate! Y-you're abandoning me?!"

"Not for good! It's just..." Peaches sighed. "I don't think this was really meant for me as a permanent place to live. Now that I actually have a permanent place to live..." She wrung her hands together. "And it's with my actual parents, to boot!"

"B-b-but-"

"And no, this doesn't mean I'll be leaving Odd Squad. I'll still come back and hang out with you guys all day every day." Peaches tried to give an assuring smile. "Even you. Besides, that tube entrance we went through was practically right across the street! So whenever you need me, you can just go through there."

Tears pooled in Mandy's eyes. She began to blubber nothing but gibberish.

And then the waterfalls came.

Olive was the first to grab two umbrellas, open them, and hang one right over her head, remarking under her breath about how it was going to be a long, long night -- for her, and for the other two girls.

---

"Yeah. It's sudden, I know, but-"

"BOSS!! Tell Peach she doesn't hafta go! Get the police involved! The FBI! The CIA! The President of the United States! Prime Minister of Canada! Chancellors! Governors! Mayors!"

"Ignore her, Oprah." Olive rolled her eyes. "So what do you say?"

"Of course. It'd be downright criminal to not let Mandy visit her real parents. Just tell her to stay safe and to not get into any trouble."

"Mhm." With a scowl, Olive turned around, phone still to her ear. "Mandy, quit caterwauling or I'm going to tape your mouth."

"But Peach is leeeeeeeaviiiiing!"

"She already said it's not permanent!"

"Wait, Peaches is leaving?" Oprah asked. "Give me the details."

"I...uh..." Olive cleared her throat. "Well, she hasn't decided, but she wants to stay with her real parents and live with them permanently. She'll still come to Odd Squad to help out, though."

"Ah. Well, as long as she comes back to help, then whatever she decides to do is fine by me."

"Thank you!" Peaches called, over the sounds of Mandy's pathetic whining.

"Have a good rest of your night." Olive said.

"You too."

As Olive closed her phone and put it on her chest, she heaved a sigh. They were nearly to Kieran's house, but the journey took far longer than it should have due to Mandy's complaining. The hybrid screamed, whined, kicked, but both Olive and Peaches opted to ignore her. By the time they arrived five minutes later, she had collapsed in a fit of wailing.

Neither Director nor catgirl needed to knock on the door to get Kieran's attention. The man's attention was already brought by his crying daughter.

"Oh my God, Mandy, what happened?" Kieran helped the hybrid to her feet, giving a yelp when she wrapped her arms around him and buried her face into his chest. He glanced at Olive and Peaches. "Is she okay?"

"She's fine." Olive assured. "Peaches...she, uh..."

"I want to stay with you and...Mom..." Peaches wondered how long it would take until she was used to the names. "...as well. On a permanent basis, I think."

Kieran's eyes widened. "A permanent basis?"

"Yeah. I've been living in Precinct 13579 for a while now, but now that I have a place I can actually call home, with my real parents...I think I want to live with you." Peaches gave a meek smile. "If you'll have me."

"Sure, of course!" Kieran nodded. "Like I said, I have two bedrooms, so you're free to take the guest one. I'll have to get it set up for you."

"Thanks. Can we come in?"

Kieran didn't answer Peaches' question right away, trying to swivel around so he could go inside but finding it hard to do so when he had over one hundred pounds of human squeezing him. Still, he persevered and eventually succeeded, placing Mandy's feet on his own and waddling away. "Yes. Come on in." He smiled at the Director. "You too, Olive."

"Really?" Olive blinked. "I don't want to be a burden or anything..."

"Nonsense! Come join us for dinner. I made some fettucine alfredo with broccoli and chicken. Trying something new after living off of frozen meals and junk food for months."

Deciding to take the offer, Olive walked inside with Peaches in tow, the latter closing the door behind her as she dropped her suitcases. Mandy did the same.

"Have a seat in the dining room, you three. I'll bring out dinner in just a sec." Kieran glanced down. "Mandy, uh...can you get off of me, please?"

A mournful, high-pitched, muffled scream left the hybrid.

Not quite knowing what to do and simply running on common sense, Kieran rubbed her back. "Hey, it's okay. Aren't you hungry? I bet some food will make you feel better."

As one could probably expect from a hungry hybrid, Mandy's face moved away from Kieran's body. A few choked sobs left her, and she gazed up at her father with shimmers and tears in her eyes. Slowly, she nodded.

"Attagirl." Kieran tried to lift Mandy off, but the sedentary life hadn't been kind to him, and so he didn't move her any more than a couple inches. Luckily, what he lacked in strength, Olive made up for in...well, strength, as she lifted Mandy off of his feet. "To the dining room!"

A few minutes later, four bowls of piping-hot pasta with steamed broccoli and pieces of chicken were placed in front of three very hungry girls...and one man, because Kieran was hungry too and he had made the meal for himself with leftovers to spare for at least a day or two. As everyone dug in, they began to feel a sense of warmth and happiness that could only come from a full stomach filled with warm food.

Peaches, who was done with her food, watched as her cousin -- no, her sister, she had to get used to that -- ate her food in a most melancholy manner. Normally she would attribute it to her not wanting to display her usual eating habits in front of Kieran, even if he was her father, but she knew exactly what was on her mind.

"Mandy, can we talk?"

Olive paused mid-bite. Slurped up the rest of her noodle. Chewed, swallowed, and then reached for a napkin to wipe her mouth.

Kieran did much of the same, only without the napkin.

Both of them stared at Mandy, who was staring at Peaches in turn. "Sure." she said, hopping off of the chair and moving away to a more private area.

Peaches decided to use the guest bedroom, which looked about as pristine as one of a parent who had been putting it in upkeep for when their kid eventually decided to move back in with them.

"Look, I'm gonna cut right to the chase." Peaches said. "I know you're upset about me moving back in with Dad. And Mom, too." She paused to take a moment and mentally congratulate herself on ascending to a family-title basis without hesitation. "But I'm going to say this one more time, and I want you to really listen." She grabbed Mandy by the cheeks. "It's not permanent. All I'm going to do is stay here for a week, with you. Then I'll make my decision. Okay?"

Mandy looked away, not saying anything.

"I'll still come and visit Odd Squad, all the time, every day. With finding Vallea's culprit off of my to-do list, I have a ton of free time. We can hang out together, kick oddness in the butt, kick villains in the butt..." Peaches smirked. "We'll still see each other. I'm not going away for good."

Mandy bit her lip.

"You and I both know that Precinct 13579 was never going to be a permanent place for me to stay. I'm glad that Oprah offered me shelter, and I'll always be grateful to her for offering such kindness to me when I was in need. But I was always a guest. I don't work for you guys. I could never work for you guys. My name doesn't start with an O. You, Twilight, and the others are exceptions to the rule. So are the other ponies who do double-time in Equestria and Toronto." Peaches paused. "And if I'm being honest...being an Investigation agent isn't really for me. Neither are any of the other departments."

A pause.

"Do you understand me?"

That caused Mandy to look up. She gave a resigned nod.

"Good. Now, cheer up, won't you? You being sad makes me sad." Peaches let go of Mandy's cheeks and began heading for the door. "Let's go finish dinner. I need a bath."

Mandy didn't follow right away. Instead, she watched as her cou- her sister left and headed straight towards the hallway that led to the dining room. Her eyes became glazed over, and a tiny bit of color got sapped out of her, leaving her looking ever the slightest tinge of gray as she too headed for the dining room.

---

The rest of the night was spent with Peaches, Mandy and Kieran all watching TV. No one really wanted to go out and do anything except take a lazy night in.

As Peaches returned to the guest bedroom from the bathroom after having been the final person to use it, her gaze fell upon a Mandy that was lying rather still. Knowing that it was strange she wasn't snoring or sleep-talking, the catgirl threw back the sheets and got into bed.

"Peach."

The monotonic, fatigue-addled voice caused a few hairs to pop out of place.

"I'm going home. Back to Odd Squad."

Slowly, Mandy slid out of bed and got to her feet. Peaches watched the act with concern. "I...are...why? You're not staying here?"

"No. I've...come down with something. I'll just go back and have Dr. O check me out in the morning."

"You mean the afternoon?"

The lighthearted quip fell onto the ground like an anvil, going completely unanswered as Mandy picked up her suitcases in her corona and headed for the door.

Peaches bit her lip. Something was wrong. She didn't know what, exactly, but something was wrong.

"Mandy, wait, I-"

The door opened and closed.

Peaches muttered a curse under her breath as she angrily flopped down into bed, knowing that she couldn't confront her sister -- finally, she got it right -- without waking up her father. Sleep eventually managed to claim her after a few minutes, but it certainly wasn't without claiming the regret that resided in her heart.

---

Meanwhile, back at Headquarters, the same fate could not be said for Mandy.

After the transformation, she had never underwent a sleepless night in her life. Beforehand, sure, but afterward, not so much. It just didn't feel right to have a being who loved sleeping suffer from an illness that prevents sleep.

And yet, here she was, lying in bed and staring at the ceiling.

She had strung up small pretty white lights in her room, something soothing to fall asleep to that wasn't light blaring into her eyeballs. But she still couldn't sleep. She tossed, she turned, she counted time sheep, and nothing worked. She even tried playing a movie in her mind, but even that didn't work, as she stayed awake for the entirety of its runtime.

To keep her mind occupied, she decided to roam around Headquarters. Drink a nice warm happy glass of milk. Stress-eat to induce postprandial somnolence. Internally cry because all the food she ate gave her a terrible stomachache. Walk around Headquarters some more. Read a book. Do some extra work to get a jump on the next day's caseload. Lie flat in the snow that adorned the Fluffy Snow Room. Nearly get eaten by a Venus flytrap twice her size.

By the time she had landed in the bullpen from teleporting to random places -- it was clear she had run out of things to do -- the lights turned on. They weren't usually super bright at such a high elevation, but with her eyes bloodshot from a lack of sleep, they shot clear into her eyes, causing her to yelp and rub them furiously.

Agents began to filter into Headquarters for the day. Chief among them was the big chiefaroni herself, suitcase in tow that was full of her lunch.

"Mandy? What are you doing back here? I thought you..."

Oprah trailed off. Her lower jaw hung limp as she scanned Mandy up and down, taking in her unkempt appearance, her unusual change in coloration, and her dour half-lidded expression that seemed permanent.

"You...you're gray!" Oprah rubbed her eyes. "You still have some color, though...but yep, you're a little gray." She tilted her head. "Did you get any sleep last night?"

"No."

That made the Director do a double-take, but it didn't startle her enough to prevent her from turning around and trying to flag down a Doctor. "Olaila!" She frantically waved. "Over here!"

"Huh? Oh, Ms. O!" Olaila, clad in the same navy shirt and pants and teal coat with lanyard that Dr. O himself wore, broke away from the crowd and moved over to her boss. "Good morning! What's going on?"

"Are you seriously asking me that?" Oprah shunted Mandy forward. "Look at Mandy. She's gone gray. Her hair and tail have gone straight, straighter than I've ever seen Pinkie's hair. And she didn't sleep at all!"

"My, that's alarming." Olaila examined the hybrid, moving all sorts of limbs about. "Mandy? What's going on?"

The hybrid simply turned.

Olaila sighed, knowing that prying an answer out of her newfound patient was going to be next to impossible. "Well, I can say with certainty that she doesn't have Monochritis. This looks to be a simple case of depression." She scratched her cheek as she ran through treatment options in her mind. "Situational, not clinical."

"Is there any way we can help her?"

"Prying out the cause is the only way. And she's not keen on giving it up."

"Hold on. I know you're the Doctor here, but let me give Olive and Otto a call. They always have unorthodox solutions for this kind of thing."

Sure enough, both Directors got to Headquarters in five minutes flat. Within those five minutes, Mandy had retreated to her room, but that didn't stop Olive from barging into the room through the door that the hybrid had carelessly left unlocked.

"Mandy, what happened to you? Did Annabelle do something? Did Kieran do something?" Her frantic eyes locked on Olaila. "And you...you said this is depression?"

"Situational depression. Not clinical. Clinical is more chronic and can last for a long time. Situational depression subsides when the event making the affected depressed in the first place passes."

Everyone stared at the lump under the bedsheets that was, without a doubt, a depressed Mandy.

"She hasn't fessed up to what's bothering her?"

"Not in the slightest. I've tried asking her a few times, but no dice."

Olive cracked her knuckles. "All right, Otto. Let's go work our magic."

Together, the two Directors moved towards the lump, lifting the blanket up and sticking their faces under it with nothing but smiles on their color-filled faces that greatly contrasted with Mandy's own -- even if she had her back to them.

"Hey, you!" Olive greeted. "What're you doing back so early? We thought you were on vacation!"

"I was." Mandy rustled slightly in bed. "Now I'm back."

Otto blinked. "But it's only been a day."

"Has it? I hadn't noticed."

Both Directors exchanged surprised glances.

"Look, I know you haven't gotten any sleep..." Olive smiled. "But why don't we do something fun today? Whatever you want."

"No." Mandy rolled over onto her right side, her eyes slightly narrowed. One look at them and both Olive and Otto could tell that the blue hue had faded from them. "Now can you please leave? Both of you are getting on my nerves."

Olive frowned. "Are you sure? We really don't like seeing you like this."

Silence.

She sighed and pulled her face out of the blanket. "C'mon, Otto."

"What?" The co-Director did the same. "We're just gonna give up? Like that?"

"Mandy's stubborn. She wouldn't give us the reason why she's so depressed if we gave her a lifetime of food." Olive stood up. "We'll try again tomorrow."

Oprah and Olaila shared a worried glance between each other, but ultimately resigned to following Olive and Otto on their way out, closing the door behind them after giving brokenhearted glances towards their coworker.

---

The next seven days were torture for Mandy.

Sleep eluded her, being so far out of her grasp that she couldn't reach it even if she tried her hardest to. She stress-ate her way through the day, but miraculously never gained a single pound. She began to experience hallucinations, the little voice in her head telling her that maybe, just maybe, running away for a third time didn't seem like a bad idea. She holed herself up in her room, only stopping her explorations throughout Headquarters when her bones and muscles didn't even allow her to get up.

About the only thing keeping her remotely alive was her sense of hygiene. While she was able to, she still bathed herself and brushed her hair, if only out of a sense of habit more than enjoyment and because she couldn't handle all the complaints she would receive if she didn't. She neglected her work and let it pile up, even when most of it was outsourced to Pinkie.

On Day Seven, everyone -- including Olaila and Peaches, once the latter had gotten wind of what had happened -- tried one last time to get her to cheer up. They knew that if Mandy went even one more day without sleep, it would kill her.

"Mandy?" Olive peered in the doorway that led to Mandy's room, the door having been knocked down by her and Otto when they had tried to access the room and found they had been denied access. "We're coming in."

"You should be going out."

"Not happening." Olive made her way inside with everyone in tow. "We're all worried about you. This behavior isn't like you. Something happened, and I, for one, am not leaving until we find out what it is."

Mandy had no rebuttal to that. All she could do was curl herself into a tighter ball as she heard the sound of footsteps and hoofsteps.

"Well, if you won't fess up, then it's time I fess up."

The familiar voice caused Mandy's eyes to widen, but her doing so led to her left eye beginning to twitch. Or at least she thought that's why it was twitching, anyway.

"Mandy, I know why you're upset. You're mad at me, aren't yo-"

A gray tail shot out and wrapped around the neck of the voice's source, lifting it up into the air and strangling it. The source hacked away, its black tail waving furiously as a sign of panic. Immediately everyone pounced to save the source, pulling it away from the tail's grasp and allowing it to take a few deep breaths of the air it had taken for granted just moments before.

The tail was yanked back into the lump of blankets, and in exchange, part of an angry, tear-stained face popped out, teeth bared and eyes twitching out of sync every second to the point where there was no second where they weren't.

"You motherfuckers."

Not ever having heard Mandy swear in full before without being stopped, everyone fell silent, save for the source whom the hybrid could see was Peaches, still grasping at air. It wasn't just her swearing that surprised them, though -- it was also her voice, which was low, gravelly, and slightly slurred.

"I thought I told you to get the fuck out of here. But you little shits just don't listen."

"Mandy, we need to talk."

"DID I PERMIT YOU TO SPEAK, YOU PATHETIC RUNT?!"

Twilight was shocked into silence again, her eyes wide as she stayed put, not daring to utter even a single breath.

"My problems...my problems don't lie with you." Mandy's head stuck straight out, exposing her frizzy hair, her shrunken bloodshot eyes, and her reddened face. No one wanted to know what the rest of her looked like. Her gaze locked on to one person in the group in particular, and when it did, she thrust out an arm, a hand, and with that, a finger. "They're with it."

Eyes began to lock on to the target of Mandy's unbridled rage. Said target was quick to recoil, taking a step back and clutching a hand to the part of her shirt that covered her chest. She opened her mouth to speak, but was quickly interrupted.

"You would rather live with pwecious little Mommy and Daddy than with me? The first friend in your never-life? The one who's been about as close as family could get all this time?" Slowly, Mandy slid out of the blankets, her body as lithe as a snake as she slithered towards Peaches. "If I knew you hated me that much, I never would have tried to befriend you in the first place. I would have killed you with my hammer and left you to rot out in full view of innocent people and innocent ponies alike."

Everyone knew that Mandy, being without sleep for several days, wasn't in the best state of mind at the moment -- thus, what she said could be dismissed as falsehood and empty threats. That didn't mean the air of shock couldn't hang around in the room, however.

Mandy ran a finger along the underside of Peaches' neck. "Don't you remember? When you found me annoying and wanted nothing to do with me? When a simple little note changed all that and made you realize that you needed a good support base if you didn't want to die before your fifties?" she spat. "Now that our parents have come back, you want to abandon me. Abandon Odd Squad. Your friends. Your family. You want to leave all that behind..." Her pony ear flicked wildly, causing her to pause for a few seconds before she gained her bearings. "You want to leave all that behind for them?"

Peaches couldn't muster up the energy or the will to respond. Anxiety had her in a threshold. Similarly, no one else moved a single muscle, watching the chewing-out unfold.

"Oprah could have easily thrown you out onto the streets. She could have easily made you homeless. But she offered a helping hand and let you stay here. And now you want to disrespect her and throw all that away for some adult that popped up out of the blue and decided to drag us to his shitty little neighborhood apartment home." Mandy gave a derisive snort. "How pathetic and ungrateful. I expected better. But perhaps it would have been best if I had lowered the bar."

Hurt began to reflect in Peaches' eyes as she came to the conclusion that, regardless of Mandy's mental state, she was mostly right. Peaches never once considered the weight of her decision in regards to Oprah, or Twilight, or Olive, or anyone. She wanted so badly to be with her parents that she was blind to everyone's reactions, everyone's emotions, everyone's thoughts and feelings. She didn't stop to think about how she would be giving up everything she had been offered, tossing it away in the trash like it was worthless junk that she didn't need anymore.

She wasn't even sure if she had said her true thanks to Oprah for what she had done. Expressed her gratitude for having stayed here. She had taken it all for granted, hadn't she? Within the mess of emotions she had found herself in, she found it hard to remember.

As she gazed into Mandy's eyes, she could see that they too were full of hurt. Hidden behind blood vessel after blood vessel and those shrunken gray irises was hurt. The hybrid was suffering. The words Peaches had told her before hadn't even sunk in, and now she was paying the ultimate price for it.

She couldn't solve the issue by appealing to Mandy's health concerns. No one could. So she had to take an alternate route.

Taking a deep breath to qualm some of the anxiety swirling in her body, she spoke.

"Growing up in Vallea, I had no supportive parental figures. The two catpeople who were tasked with raising me only did the bare minimum, things that would be passable by society and not lead to execution at the House of Torture." Peaches could feel the looks of confusion just from uttering the name of the place, but she tried to ignore them and press onward. "If I was a healthy catperson, it would allow them to keep up appearances among their friends. That was how they saw it."

Glances were exchanged throughout the group, many of pity. Mandy's expression did not waver.

"So when we finally found Annabelle and Kieran, I was thrilled. I would finally have more of a supporting, loving family. First I had found my sister, and now I had found my parents. It was a dream come true." Peaches' smile turned into a frown. "It's like I said. Living here was never going to be permanent. I'd planned for permanence, but all I'm really doing here is sapping up essential resources." She glanced between Oprah and Mandy numerous times. "Think about it. I'm not a client, not of yours or of anybody else. I'm not an employee, even though I've helped you guys solve cases and helped fight bad guys and creatures. I'm not a creature that is cared for in the Creature Room by Ocean or Fluttershy. I'm just a guest that is staying here thanks to the hospitality of an Odd Squad Director and their second-in-command. Nothing more, nothing less."

Oprah blinked, an unreadable expression crossing her face.

"I figured you knew that, Mandy. I figured you had accepted that I would one day be gone. Not back to Vallea, mind you -- Ashero would have to drag me there himself -- but not in Odd Squad, either. Did you really think otherwise?"

Mandy hung on to every word, and didn't need a second to pause and think about them. Her eyes somehow became more twitchy than before. "Of course I did! You, of all people, should know what it's like to find a member of your own family! To find someone who you share an actual bond of blood with! To have someone..." She huffed out a sound that could only barely be called a laugh. "...someone who you could see as a sibling! Someone to call a best friend!"

The hybrid curled up her hands and formed fists within them. Slowly but surely, tears began filling up the space where her eyes resided. As they stung her eyes, she blinked rapidly, and every blink sent a tear or two rolling down her face like leaves in a lazy stream.

"Being an only child...it sucks. It fucking sucks. I've learned to live with it, but..." Mandy glanced at the ponies. "Not even Twilight, or Pinkie, or any of the other ponies are my sisters. Biologically speaking, it'd just be weird and awkward." She shot them a pitiful look as the tears kept rolling. "I don't know what they are, in all honesty. I...I don't consider them as friends. More like acquaintances."

"Then why don't we change that?"

Shocked glances were sent Twilight's way as she stepped forward, a small smile on her maw. She had to guess that the majority of them were the result of her running the risk of talking with a crazed, dazed pony-human hybrid with severe sleep deprivation and a case of situational depression. But she didn't care about that.

"Why don't we each all set aside a day to hang out with you? You could do what we like to do, and we could do what you like to do. That way, we can get to know each other better and be friends instead of just acquaintances." Twilight explained. "Would you like that?"

Voices began playing in Mandy's mind, unintelligible whispers she couldn't make out. She figured they were probably telling her not to trust Twilight, but she opted to ignore them. Her adrenaline was still going strong, but every inch of it she lost was replaced by a small moment that showed she was weakening, whether that was the twitching of an eye or a stray hair that popped out of place.

She nodded, the faintest hint of a smile forming on her face. "Yeah. I would."

"All right. So now that's one issue settled...let's move on to the other." Peaches took another deep breath, placing her hands on Mandy's shoulders and looking her square in the eyes. "As you know, I spent the week with Dad. He's a nice guy, though he's pretty lazy and sluggish..." She rolled her eyes in an amused fashion. "But I think he makes a great father to me and you."

A disinterested Mandy stared, in such a way that she was indirectly telling her sister to get to the point already.

"Anyway, I've...decided that I really do want to live with him and Mom permanently."

Mandy opened her mouth to speak. Peaches quickly shot her index finger forward and against her lips to close it.

"I'll still come see you, just as I have all throughout the week." Peaches lit up with an idea. "In fact, how about this? I could go to Odd Squad and be with you and everyone else during the day, and have a place to return to at night." She paused for a moment. "I'd probably take a few days off here and there to hang out with Dad -- he's really lonely without Mom being there, been in pretty rough shape ever since she died -- but for the most part, I'd still be with you just as much as I was before."

The tears began to roll faster down Mandy's face.

"We're sisters. I don't ever wanna be apart from you. I won't ever leave you. I'll be by your side, in life and in death."

Peaches wrapped Mandy up in a tight hug.

"I love you, Mandy. I love you so, so much. More than you could ever know."

The words stuck like glue to Mandy's brain. Her mind, as sick as it was, flashed back to a memory she knew was no falsehood, of when she had asked everyone if they loved her and they told her they did, and she believed it because they all expressed their love in different ways. But even if someone expressed their love through nonverbal means...it was always nice to actually hear it. It warmed Mandy's heart whenever she saw a parent give an "I love you" to a child, but that warmth would often get replaced by jealousy and nauseating sickness as she realized that no one had ever really said the words to her. If they did, she certainly couldn't remember them.

Her body began to tremble. Having little support, it began to collapse on her like a demolished building, bringing her to her knees and then to her stomach as she buried her face in her forearms and began to sob.

Peaches knelt down and scooped her sister into her arms, offering her chest as a more suitable area to cry on than a simple little forearm. Mandy took it willingly, wrapping her arms around her and sobbing as loud as she could.

Olive stepped forward. One step, two steps, and then wrapped her own arms around Peaches and Mandy in a hug.

Everyone else was quick to follow suit, to the point where, aside from the hovering Twilight, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, it was just one big ball of hugging agents.

Slowly but surely, Mandy's depression began to wither away, like a demon's possession visibly wafting from a living being. The warmth of so many bodies up against her made her anger and hurt and adrenaline all die off, being replaced by a feeling of severe drowsiness that caused her eyes to droop.

"We love you so, so much, Mandy. More than you could ever know."

The unisonant declaration was the last thing she heard before she slipped into unconsciousness, being launched into her own personal dreamland within a millisecond. The cosmic forces had finally deemed her worthy of the need known as sleep, and all with a warm smile on her face that showed the words of her family had stuck.

Peaches winced as the sound of loud, raucous snores -- which very nearly rattled and shook more than a few objects in the room -- reached both pairs of ears. Others had the same reactions, but Olive, Otto and Oprah couldn't pull their ears forward the same way the ponies could fold their ears downwards, and so they broke free of the hug to use their hands as mufflers. Peaches stood up and moved to put Mandy to bed, covering her with the bedsheets and watching with a tender expression as she turned on her right side. Her body shuddered as a wave of purple magic washed over her, and she turned to see Twilight's horn lit.

"Anti-magic spell." the alicorn explained, once Peaches stepped out of the room and closed the door so Mandy's snores and sleep-talk were muffled. "Let's not forget what happened the last time Mandy suffered from sleep deprivation. Granted, this bout was involuntary..." She took a moment to think. "...but do we really want to chase her all around Headquarters and all around Toronto again?"

A flurry of "no's" met her in response.

"So what does the spell do, exactly?" Peaches asked.

"For seven days -- that's when I calculate she'll wake up -- Mandy can't use magic. She also can't fly. The spell will wear off after that."

"So seven days...one for each day she didn't get any sleep." Olive nodded. "You've got this figured out, Twilight."

"Of course. I didn't get this far in studying Mandy's sleep habits just to be lacking in the preparation department." Twilight responded, with nary a lack of pride. "I've tried many anti-magic spells on her. She hasn't broken through a single one."

"Okay...so how about a volume spell?" Oprah asked, pointing towards the door. "Because I don't feel like getting reports from agents thinking there's a monster in there."

"Well, I could. But I have a better idea." Conjuring up a small blank sign, a marker, a small piece of string, and a plastic hook with two strips for securing, Twilight got to work. She applied the hook to the door, wrote on the sign, wrapped the string through the two holes at the top of the sign, and adjusted it onto the hook. "There."

Rarity took a look at the sign and read it aloud.

Hiya! This hybrid is currently busy sleeping -- please do not disturb! All inquiries meant for me should be directed to Ms. O.

- Love and superflytacklehugs, Mandy

"Hm. You certainly have nailed her speech pattern down well."

Twilight polished her hoof on her chest. "The only issue I have is how 'superflytacklehug' got into her vernacular...though with how she hugs, I suppose that checks out."

"That'll deal with things." Oprah nodded. "Thank you, Twilight."

"Not a problem." Twilight glanced at her partner. "Come on, Rainbow Dash. We've got paperwork to do."

"Of course we do. When do we not?"

In spite of Rainbow's protesting, she went to leave with Twilight, the pair disappearing around the corner. Shortly after, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie left as well.

"As for you two..." Oprah looked at Olive and Otto as she began to walk away. "If I were you, I'd give Mandy a bath sooner rather than later. Her muscles gave out on her back there. She doesn't even have the strength to stand, much less engage in basic hygiene stuff. And I don't know when she took a shower or a bath last." A soft exhale left her lips. "She'll need to eat and drink, too."

"Hey now. Who's the doctor here, Ms. O?" Olaila raised an eyebrow at her departing boss before she made eye contact with the other two Directors. "I'll get an IV started that will provide her with ample food and drink. The last thing I want is for her to choke to death as she eats and drinks in her sleep. Be right back."

It was clear that the Medical department assistant had read up on Mandy fairly extensively, and so no one questioned her judgment, instead nodding and watching as she left.

"I'll make a mental note that we need to come back for Mandy later." Olive began to walk away. "Let's head back to Headquarters, Otto."

She didn't get more than a few steps before she took those same steps backwards. Otto watched her curiously as she laid a hand on the doorknob.

"On second thought, you go ahead. I have...things...to do."

That earned her a cock of an eyebrow, but ultimately Otto gave a smile and began heading in the same direction she had been going.

When he was gone, Olive opened the door to Mandy's room and stepped inside, immediately making a beeline for the bedbound hybrid. She took a moment to observe -- Mandy was muttering something unintelligible, but Olive could make out words like "love" and "family" and "pineapple". Clearly, she was having a dream that had meaning, a dream involving both her adoptive family and her real one. And pineapples, though she wasn't sure where those fit into the equation.

Olive grit her teeth. Grinded them. Slightly narrowed her eyes. Gave a few uncomfortable grunts.

Let out an exhale, bent down, and kissed Mandy on the forehead.

"Have a good sleep, okay? Never forget how much I, and everyone else, love you." She stroked the hybrid's hair. "My sweet, sweet Mandy."

Something inside her stomach turned, making her nauseous. She left the room as slowly as she could, closed the door, and began to gag. Had she not gone to the Bathroom at her own Headquarters prior to coming to Precinct 13579's Headquarters, she probably would have had something to throw up. But nothing came, and she was left with the sickening nauseousness that followed her as she walked to the tube lobby.

It would take a while before she adopted cutesy terms into her vocabulary. She knew that.

But she also knew that Mandy was a being who thrived not on any "tough love" variant of parenting, but one on freely-expressed love, bordering on frequent affection. She needed to be told "I love you", and she needed to be called "sweetie" and "honey" and "darling" and all of those little pet names, lest she grow into a corrupted Odd Squad agent and join the ranks of those like Odd Todd.

Olive had kissed Mandy on the forehead, reminded her of how much everyone loved her, and called her "sweet". It made her physically ill, but it was a good start. She had taken that first step, and she felt proud of herself for doing so, holding that pride for as long as she could.

---

As predicted, Mandy had awoken within a week's time.

On Day Seven -- or Fourteen, if one counted all the days of sleep deprivation -- her eyes creaked open, and she let what little light there was pour in. A mighty yawn left her, causing her body to shudder, and almost immediately she felt a sort of pang on her lower half.

Heaving a sigh, she tried to swing her legs over the side of her bed, but doing so took the rest of her body with it, and she collapsed onto the floor. A groan left her as she slowly got up, noticing a pole wheeling away from her.

Her pony ears moved towards the sound of the door opening, and a rather familiar voice speaking.

"Oh my gosh, Mandy! What happened?" Olaila rushed over and knelt down beside the hybrid. "Did you fall out of bed?"

Mandy could only groan in response.

"Well, either way, it's nice to see you awake. Let me help you up."

"Bathroom..."

"Ah, so that's where you were trying to go?" Olaila smiled. "Come on, then. I'll take you there."

Mandy graciously took the offer of the assistant's hand, grabbing it as hard as she could -- which wasn't saying too much -- and hoisting herself up. From there, Olaila walked with her to the Bathroom and removed her IV, then stood outside the door and listened as Mandy tried to perform the usual routine, hearing murmurs that she couldn't really make out.

Eventually, the hybrid decided to take an impromptu shower. As Olaila couldn't go in -- she knew Olive and Otto would let her, but she wasn't as close to Mandy as they were and her patients had a right to their privacy -- she decided to continue listening, her hearing alert for any signs of a fall.

The second there was one, she was quick to rush in and turn off the water.

"Oh dear. Muscle degradation, I bet. They haven't really been used in a week, after all." Olaila murmured. "Mandy, are you okay?"

A low groan split the air, echoing in the small room. Mandy didn't move.

"Stay still." Olaila grabbed the towel that hung on the bar next to the shower and wrapped Mandy's body in it, not caring about whether she saw the hybrid naked or not. When her body was securely wrapped, she was lifted out of the shower and onto her feet. "Okay. Let's go back to your room. I should help you get dressed."

Lucky for both Olaila and Mandy that dressing the latter went largely without incident. It still felt awkward to Olaila to dress her patient -- back when she was an Investigation agent, it really wasn't every day she made house calls to elderly and disabled clients who needed help with such a thing -- but she got Mandy dressed in her usual suit in all but ten minutes.

"There you go! You're all clean, dressed, and ready to go." Olaila declared. "Now, I've taken you off of the IV, so you should be plenty full. And with your Chocolate Moo-Moo Surprise drink, you should have lots of energy, which includes the healing of your muscles. How are you feeling?"

Mandy smiled. "Better. A lot better. But also really regretful. I need to make amends." She blinked. "One thing, though...why can't I use magic in here?"

"Twilight put an anti-magic spell on your room so you wouldn't sleepwalk or use magic in your sleep. It should wear off soon."

"Hopefully." Mandy sighed, and then perked up. "Oh, I have an idea."

"Oh?"

"I should throw a party, a big 'I Love You and You Love Me' party! It's the least I could do after everyone snapped me out of it." She shook her head. "No, no, that can come after. Right now, I need to head back to Dad's house."

"A good idea. I'll head back." Olaila headed out. "See you later, Mandy. And best of luck!"

"Thanks! And...uh...thanks! For taking such good care of me!"

"It's no problem!"

With a quick dart out of her room and a quick feat of teleportation, Mandy arrived right across the street from Kieran's house. She didn't even need to think about what to say as she looked both ways and made her way across.

She knew Peaches was here. She had to be. Even though she said she would be in Odd Squad for most of the day, Mandy had a gut feeling that she was here.

Taking a deep breath, she knocked five times on the door.

It opened.

"Mandy?"

"Hi...uh, Dad. Can...can I come in? We need to talk."

---

"So that's what happened?" Kieran blinked. "Mandy, I-I'm so sorry. If I had known you were so distre-"

"Save it." Mandy held up a hand. "I think I've come to terms about Peach deciding to live with you and Mom now. Wow, it's gonna feel weird callin' you two that..." She gave a soft chuckle. "But if she wants to live here, then she can live here. I think she'll make good on her promise to visit me."

"Of course!" Peaches called, from where she was situated in the kitchen doing dishes.

Mandy glanced at everyone in the room. Her real mother and father, and even Haruko, Olive and Otto, were all here beside her. It warmed her heart, and allowed her smile to grow bigger. "And just so you know..." She glanced at Olive and Otto, with an extra glance at Peaches. "I love you guys too. You don't know how much I needed to hear those words. And how much I still need to hear them."

"Well, it's our fault -- no, it's my fault you never heard them." Olive rubbed her arms. "You know how I'm not one for terms of endearment. But I'll try to improve, little by little. For your sake."

"I'd like that."

The pair hugged, much to the comfort of Haruko, Annabelle, Otto and Kieran as they watched with smiles.

"Dad? Mom?" Mandy broke free and turned to her real parents. "My vacation starts now. I'd like to hang out with you two and get to know you a little better, and maybe you'll get to know me a little better too." She touched her pony ears. "Like for one, you're probably curious about why I don't look entirely human, aren't you?"

"If we're being honest, sweetie...yes, we are." Annabelle gave a quiet exhale. "We just didn't want to bring it up because we thought it was a sensitive subject for you."

Mandy scoffed. "Not really. It still stings a little, but I don't mind talking about it. Why don't I tell you guys the story?"

Said story took exactly fifteen minutes to tell -- Otto had timed it. Kieran and Annabelle went from surprised, to shocked, to saddened, to smiles as they absorbed every bit of Mandy's tragic tale turned good. In the midst of it, Mandy had rushed to the bathroom to spruce up her hair and tail using Kieran's hairspray, which, despite being for men, worked like a charm in restoring both to their natural curly states. She also found the time to raid the refrigerator for some food, as the IV nourishment she had been given was wearing off.

"That's quite a story." Annabelle remarked, not sure how to start reactions off. "I'm very sorry that happened to you, Mandy. It must have been quite heartbreaking, having your family and your home turned against you in such a terrible manner."

"It was." Mandy took a bite of the BLT she had found, which, unbeknownst to her, were Kieran's leftovers from the previous night. "But I made up with Clementine now, and I've been living happily in Odd Squad for a long time!"

"Good to hear." Kieran said. "Now that we've got that out of the way, why don't you tell us what you'd like to do?"

"Ooh, ooh, amusement park, amusement park!" Mandy kicked her legs wildly. "Oh, it's been so long since I've been to one of those! And I'm sure Peach hasn't even been to one at all."

"Sad but true."

"See?" Mandy got down on the floor and clasped her hands together. "PleasepleasepleeeeeasecanwegoI'vealwayswantedtogoMomma'salwaystoobusywithworkandamusementparksaren'therthi-"

"All right, all right, don't get too excited." Kieran laughed. "I'll be happy to take you both."

"Yes! Chalk one up for ol' Mandy!" Mandy leaned into Olive's face. "You, however...go tell Oprah I'm gone! Have her move everything to Pinkie and whatever other agents she has." She gripped her by the shoulders. "I need this. I need to go on rides. I need to feel the wind on my face. I have been in a coma for a week. I need this. I need it more than money. A house. A car. A stable retirement without debit. A coffin. A funeral. A grave."

"You're going off on a tangent again, Mandy." Olive pushed her adopted daughter away from her and stood up. "We'll go tell Oprah right now." Her eyes caught Otto's crestfallen expression. "Otto, we have work. We'll have to go another time."

"Aww...can't I call in a sick day?"

"No." Olive grabbed him by the wrist. "Let's go."

Everyone exchanged goodbyes as they watched the two Directors leave the house, having some good chuckles at Otto's protests the second the door closed.

Kieran gave a grunt of pain as he turned to his bedroom. "All right, I'll go and get ready. We leave in about fifteen minutes."

"Okay!" both girls said. Annabelle opted to sit on the couch.

"Are you comin' too, Mom?"

Annabelle blinked at Mandy. "Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt. I am invisible to most, so unfortunately I won't get the same gratification of rides and such as you three..." She smiled. "But it would be a good way for me to see life outside of the Magical Grasslands."

Overjoyed, Mandy leaped into the air and threw her hands up. "Yeah! Family outing! Family outing!"

Haruko exhaled. "I suppose it also would not hurt for me to come as well, if you all will have me." she said. "Like Annabelle, I cannot get the same thrills as those of yours, but I would like to accompany her in the event that she happens to get lost."

"Yeah! Family outing with Haruko! Family outing with Haruko!"

Sure enough, fifteen minutes passed, and the family of four, plus Haruko, were in the car and on the way to Fantasy Fair. It was at the very first stoplight that Peaches decided to get something off of her chest.

"Okay, I can't hold it in anymore. The word is 'debt', Mandy. 'Debit' means something different."

Mandy rolled her eyes as she looked out the window, cracking a smile. "Ah, thank you, O Wise Feline Dictionary. Whatever would we do without you."

Peaches simply gave a sigh that quickly formed into a chuckle.

---

The first day of Mandy's vacation was, in a single word, adventurous. Throughout the time she had spent at the Fantasy Fair, she, as well as Peaches, had gotten to know Annabelle and Kieran on a deeper level, what they enjoyed doing, and even what their own childhoods had been like. She could see the hurt in Annabelle's eyes as the hybrid waved at her from atop rollercoasters and play structures, but Haruko was there to give her comforting words. What was even better, Kieran had decided to treat everyone to Shmumber King afterwards, where Annabelle and Haruko were allowed to eat even though they couldn't feel hunger nor fullness, and Mandy could put her voracious eating habits on fine display.

By the time the group returned home, it was nightfall. Mandy had taken a well-earned shower while Peaches had gotten to cleaning herself in her cat form. Annabelle and Haruko had already returned home. And Kieran was fast asleep in the bedroom, snoring away.

Once she was done drying her hair, Mandy trudged to the Bedroom, closed the door, and slipped into the right side of the bed with a satisfied sigh. She glanced over at Peaches, who was eyeing her curiously.

"So? Did you have fun?"

"Yeah I had fun!" Mandy threw her hands into the air. "Mom and Dad are great. I'll always love my Momma, but it'll be nice having my birth parents around. Even if one of them is...uh...dead."

"You know, I expected you to grieve more when you got wind that Annabelle had died." Peaches blinked. "But I guess Olive filled the maternal void pretty well, huh?"

"She sure did. And I can always see Annabelle whenever I want to, if I just go to the Grasslands. Maybe I'll even see her tonight! Wouldn't that be funny?"

Silence filled the room. Peaches had expected to hear snoring any second now, but either Mandy just wasn't sleepy despite it being nighttime or she was actively trying to stay awake.

"Anything you want to do tomorrow?" the catgirl asked.

"I dunno...I tend to think of stuff I wanna do on the fly." Mandy responded, just before she was interrupted with a yawn. "Right now, though? I just wanna sleep. My bones feel tired. They somehow feel more tired than when I was sleep-deprived." With a weak chuckle, she turned onto her left. "G'night, sis."

Peaches smiled, let her eyes close, and turned onto her right side.

"Good night...sis. Sweet dreams."

Both girls' dreams were filled with all sorts of fun times they would have with their parents, and with each other, as newly-discovered siblings. Truly, it was a new era in both of their lives, a time of happiness that could only come from the reunification of a family that was meant to be together.

They hoped things would stay that way for a good long while.

Author's Note:

This effectively serves as the "season finale" of The Adventures of Peaches and Mandy, folks. As such, this is where this fic will end and the next one will begin. I had debated keeping the story together so all three "seasons" would be in one fic, but decided to split it off.

After this chapter is published, though, there will be a few side stories I want to get out of the way, some of which I don't want to cram into a single chapter of a single story. Chapters in this fic may be edited for spelling and grammar checks or revised entirely because they are garbage which, really, is a lot of these, now that I'm looking at it. And of course, there's the matter of my non-TAoPaM work, Solar and Lunar. Still working on the final chapter of that one at the time of writing and I should have it up hopefully soon.

To those who have read this far, thank you! This has been a passion project for me for a few years, even if it isn't strictly an MLP work. This universe is fun to build and expand on and I hope you guys look forward to what I have in store for it next.